It’s been almost two full weeks since Taylor Swift dropped her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl. On October 3, Swift predictably set records with Spotify launches and sales. This happens pretty much every time she releases. The Tortured Poets Department set records that her 12th has now smashed through, and her 13th will likely beat out what TLOAS is doing now. It’s the nature of the Swiftian cycle the world finds itself in.
But also on October 3, she also did something unprecedented. She released a piece of work that was a disappointment not to everyone, but to a lot more people than is typical. Swift can do no right in some people’s eyes, but she’s better than a lot of people give her credit for.
This time, however, with The Life of a Showgirl, she gave them some legitimate ammunition. Since then, discourse has become rather insufferable, but with some time passed, it might be a good time to disconnect from that and reflect on the album. Sadly, in doing so, it doesn’t get any better.
The Life of a Showgirl is Still Disappointing
It is telling that a lot of the initial reaction for fans of Taylor Swift, including myself, was that The Life of a Showgirl was not good. People seem to have this idea that all Swift albums need a couple of weeks for people to finally realize how good they actually are, but that’s never really been the case for me, nor should it be for music in general. If time is necessary to convince oneself that something is good, then it might not actually be good.
Take The Tortured Poets Department, for example. Upon first listen, I was absolutely thrilled with the album, and the surprise bonus The Anthology. I considered it a top three Taylor Swift album for the first week or so, but things gradually began to clear up, and it settled in right around the middle of the pack in my ranking of Swift’s discography. I never enjoyed it more than when I first heard it, which is not the case with The Life of a Showgirl.
Upon first listen, I knew, and many others did, that this just missed the mark. All the talk about returning to a higher lyrical writing style, stripping back the excess to 12 songs rather than over 30, and reuniting with 1989 producers Max Martin and Shellback gave way to a really disappointing album on all fronts.
The writing is awfully cringy at times. “I can make deals with the devil because my d**k’s bigger.” “I’m not a bad b***h, and this isn’t savage.” “And they said she didn’t do it legitly.” “Did you girlboss too close to the sun?”
Those are just a few that immediately come to line, but there’s plenty of lyrics that force an eyeroll and take you out of the song. Swift has always had a tendency to be cringy and goofy at times, but it’s mostly reined in or made up for by other qualities. Many of these new songs don’t have anything to make up for it, or at least not enough.
The language used above dated the album on release, and it’s not aging any better now. It’s already not really modern to use “bad b***h” or “savage” in a song, and as the years go by, that will only get worse. And on that note, some people have taken to explaining the cringy lyrics by saying, at least with Eldest Daughter, that they’re cringy on purpose because Swift has never been able to be in on things during the time they’re relevant.
Unfortunately, that’s just a cheap excuse for poor execution. Maybe that’s the case, but Swift, I know this for a fact, is talented enough and smart enough to figure out ways to express that without using such dated and jarring terminology. And if we’re going to justify every bad song she writes, which is something every artist does, by saying it’s not actually bad, it takes away from the quality of her good songs. If everything is good, then nothing is, and there are good Swift songs. Plenty of them, actually.
I think there’s definitely a correlation between Swift’s net worth rising and the lyrical quality declining. This album seemed more interested in marketing and promotion than actually good art. Vinyl variants are not exclusive to Swift (and it’s unfair to act like they are), but she does have endless variants and ways for fans to give her more money.
That wasn’t so much the case several years ago. The person who wrote the last great american dynasty and gold rush wasn’t so worried about adding more and more to her billions as the person who wrote Down Bad, The Alchemy, and Wood.
Speaking of Wood, it may not be the worst song Swift has ever come up with (that honor still probably goes to Me!, Vigilante Sh!t, or Look What You Made Me Do), but it’s a weird entry in her catalog. It seems like an attempt at emulating Sabrina Carpenter, but there’s really no need to do that.
For one thing, Carpenter is much younger than Swift and the raunchy theme fits her so much better. Swift isn’t Carpenter, and that’s totally fine, because not many are Taylor Swift. Instead of trying to write like Carpenter and talk all about Travis Kelce’s intimates, it might be better to write like Swift and paint a picture within her strengths.
Taylor Swift’s New Highs Aren’t That High
Even the songs I like and will continue to listen to in the future have some real issues. The Fate of Ophelia is easily the best song on the album, but it even has “Pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes” and “keep it 100 on the land, the sea, the sky” in it. It also seems like a misunderstanding of Ophelia’s character. Maybe it’s a purposeful subversion of expectations, but it’s not quite written well enough to come off that way.
It’s enjoyable to listen to and has the least bad songwriting, but as the best song on a Taylor Swift album, it’s a disappointment. Even the other albums I believe are misfires from Swift, such as Reputation, have songs that help carry them and are actually incredible (in that case it’s Getaway Car). The other good songs have some interesting choices that haven’t aged well, either. Opalite might have some slight racial microaggressions that Swift is smart enough to know better than to use. It could just be a case of laziness because she’s far too big to fail.
The Life of a Showgirl (song) is pretty solid, too, but it sounds a whole lot like other songs and uses the word “legitly,” which isn’t even a word. Sabrina Carpenter is very good on that track, which helps, but there’s still a lowlight there. Ruin the Friendship might have no cringe lyrics or examples of egregiously bad songwriting, but the messaging there is weird. Swift seems to be lamenting not hooking up with a friend who had a girlfriend in high school because that friend has since passed away.
What ultimately results is possibly her worst album. I think I’d still prefer to listen to The Life of a Showgirl over her self-titled debut album, but I can fully admit that’s mostly because I’m not a country music fan. I much prefer Swift’s pop and folk style (folklore is my second favorite album of all time), and Fearless and Red are much closer to pop than country. The debut just isn’t for me, but I don’t know that it is as disappointing as this one.
Final Song
This probably sounds like I hate Taylor Swift, but I really don’t. I have downloaded 157 songs (over 10 hours) of songs that feature her in some way on my phone. I drove six hours to go the Eras Tour. I’ll be anxiously waiting her next album. I’m a big fan; this album just missed the mark pretty badly. She’s not infallible, and honestly, it’s a little refreshing to know that she’s capable of putting out a complete and utter dud. It makes me appreciate the other work a little more, it’s just a shame it’s coming at the cost of her latest work.
