Taylor Swift released her much anticipated 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” on Oct. 3. The album hit record breaking numbers on streaming services, digital downloads and physical copies, with over four million album equivalents sold in the first week.
That same day, Swift also released an accompanying documentary exclusively to theaters for a three day span on the making of “The Life of a Showgirl”with exclusive behind the scenes footage from the music video of the first single off the album, “The Fate of Ophelia.”
Unlike previous albums like “Folklore” or “The Tortured Poets Department,” which described the heartbreaks in an emotional, moody and poetic way that Swift is known for, “The Life of a Showgirl”is an upbeat pop album that reflects on her happy engagement and how she officially owns all her songs.
The album begins with the first single off the album, “The Fate of Ophelia,” which starts with a solo piano tune before building to an upbeat, fun pop song. This song describes how her fiancé, Travis Kelce, saved her from the life of being endlessly tortured and eventually killed by love like Ophelia in the Shakespearian classic “Hamlet.”
The next song, “Elizabeth Taylor,” is named after the popular 1940s-1950s actress with the same name. This is a much slower, moody, dramatic song that reflects the realities of living in the spotlight that is constantly fleeting with lyrics like “Hollywood hates me, only as hot as your last hit baby” before ending with “only white diamonds and lovers are forever.”
The third song off the album, “Opalite,” describes how much color and wonder her fiancé has brought to her life. This song is an energetic, joyful song about her sky turning “Opalite,” which is a stone which when held up to light resembles a sunset with different shades of orange and turquoise. These orange and turquoise colors are also the color scheme of her album. This song has quickly become a fan favorite and is the perfect song to blast when you are in love with someone or in love with life.
“Father Figure” is a metaphor for Swift finally ending the battle over the rights to her music when she bought the rights to her entire life’s work, including every one of her previous albums. This has been a multi-year long struggle with Swift fighting multiple legal battles, until she was finally able to buy her music earlier this year. This song, which is a slower, more dramatic song, repeats “I protect the family” multiple times referring to her protecting her music and ensuring that they made their way back to her.
The album continues with another slow song titled “Eldest Daughter,” which is an emotional piano ballad describing Swift’s vow to Kelce that “I’m never gonna let you down, never gonna leave you now,” despite not actually having the strong, “savage” façade that she had always portrayed as the eldest daughter in her family.
The next song off the album, “Ruin The Friendship,” disguises the sad story that Swift is describing in her lyrics with a cheery beat. In this song, Swift remembers a time in high school where she almost kissed one of her friends she really liked. Sadly, this boy ended up passing away early in life. Swift reflects on what could have been by saying “I should’ve kissed you anyways,” even though she was nervous that it would ruin their existing friendship. Now, she realizes she will never get the chance to share her feelings with him.
“Actually Romantic” is a song dedicated to Swift’s haters, where she describes how “it’s actually sweet” and “actually romantic” that so many people who hate her spend much of their time talking about her.
In this song, Swift describes how she could be mad about this attention, or she could see it as a compliment that people become so obsessed with talking about her, even if it is all negative.
The next song, “Wi$h Li$t,” starts out with Swift describing the luxurious things people want in life like yachts and private planes, all which Swift already has. This song is a slower song, with the lyrics in the chorus reflecting her wish of wanting to settle down, get married and raise kids away from the public eye. Swift and her fiancé Kelce have been reportedly shopping for houses in Kelce’s hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.
“Wood” is the eighth song and is about many superstitions that Swift uses to describe her love life with her fiancé. This includes not having to worry about catching a bouquet at a wedding to find love because she knows he will already provide her with a “rock.” On the surface, this song can seem family friendly, but there are multiple sexual innuendos that may not make it suitable for younger ears.
“Cancelled” is the 10th song off of the album. In this song, Swift explains how she “loves her friends cancelled; I like them cloaked in Gucci and in scandal.” This song is about her friend’s reputations getting in the mud. It is speculated that this song is referring to one of Swift’s best friends, British actress Sophie Turner.
Turner recently experienced a public divorce from her former husband, Joe Jonas. This song is spelled “Cancelled” as in the British spelling, not the American spelling, which further confirms this rumor.
The 11th song off the album is “Honey,” which is a song where Swift describes how she hates being called “honey” because people almost always say it to her in a derogatory way; however, this upbeat song tells Kelce that he can call her honey “because he gives it new meaning … because you say it like you are in awe of me,” which is a refreshing difference from almost everyone else.
The final song off the album is “Life of a Showgirl” which is a duet with superstar Sabrina Carpenter, who opened for Swift during her famous Eras Tour. This song, which talks about the hard life of a showgirl and Swift and Carpenter have had to have thick skin and work extremely hard to get that life; however, they would never trade that stressful life for anything in the world. This song is the perfect ending to sum up her “Life of a Showgirl” album and even finished with Swift and Carpenter thanking their band at the end of the performance with a crowd cheering in the background.
While “The Life of a Showgirl” has broken many records and has been praised by many, it has also been met with some harsh criticism, mostly from fans who are used to more of an emotionally heavy album.
One student, Will Settemberino, a junior theatre major, said that this is “easily [Swift’s] weakest album and a far cry from something like ‘Folklore.’ These album lyrics were just cringy.”
Other fans are singing Swift’s praises. Hallie Stogner, a junior English major said, “I love this album because Taylor seems happy in her life. Her albums reflect her life, and the fact this album is full of joy makes me happy for her because it means her life is full of joy.”
While this album may be a more happy, upbeat album with Swift describing how much she loves her new life as a showgirl in love, if you are more into Swift’s moody albums, this may be one to skip. If you are loving life, or if you need to shake it off to love life again, this could be a new favorite album for you.
Swift has no plans on touring for this album, but she announced her next release will be a documentary movie on the Eras Tour that will be available for streaming on Dec. 12 on Disney+. “The Life of a Showgirl” album is now available for streaming on all platforms.
