On Friday, October 3, Taylor Swift released her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl. This album announcement was highly anticipated after Swift’s last album release, The Tortured Poets Department, was record-breaking. Showgirl also comes months after Swift wrapped the last show for her Eras Tour, a three-hour long concert in which Swift sings her most popular hits, filling up stadiums to the brim, and breaking the record for the highest-grossing tour in history.
Due to Swift’s rampant success, fans and haters alike were waiting for the album’s release, wondering what Swift would release into the world next, and if it would top her previous work. When the clock struck 12 on that day, many people, including myself, pressed play on the album and began to listen. Unfortunately, from posts on social media apps like TikTok and Instagram, it appears that this album has become Swift’s most controversial in the small time it’s been out.
To begin, the biggest piece of criticism Swift has gotten centered around Showgirl is how many fans feel like she has lost (or abandoned) the writing abilities she once had. Her previous albums, especially Folklore and Evermore, are massively praised by critics and fans for their detailed songwriting and thought-provoking storytelling. For example, in her song “cowboy like me” from the Evermore, Swift has compelling lyrics such as “Now you hang from my lips/Like the Gardens of Babylon/With your boots beneath my bed/Forever is the sweetest con.” Her ability to use various literary devices such as imagery, metaphors, and tone—among others—in her songwriting is clear. More so, the creativity Swift used by telling folk stories through her songs in those two albums brought out a side of her fans were not aware she had.
Fans on TikTok were hoping she would bring this style of songwriting back with Showgirl, but they were quickly met with disappointment. In songs like “Wood,” Swift sings about her fiance Travis Kelce and his amazing… personality. She sings, “Forgive me, it sounds cocky/He ah-matized me and opened my eyes/Redwood tree, it ain’t hard to see/His love was the key that opened my thighs,” which is not only just cringe-inducing but also painful to listen to knowing there is a middle-aged woman out there right now absolutely jamming it to this song.
Speaking of cringe-inducing songs, Swift tries to cater to an “edgier” side of herself in the song “CANCELLED!” where she sings about criticism from haters and not caring about their input anymore. Some lyrics from the song include “Did you girl-boss too close to the sun?” and “Good thing I like my friends cancelled/I like ’em cloaked in Gucci and in scandal/Like my whiskey sour/And poison thorny flowers.” These lyrics don’t just feel corny, but also outdated. It’s like Swift is trying to embrace songwriting that would’ve been an instant hit a decade ago, but now, it’s just tiring and underwhelming, perhaps alluding to the direction where her career is now going. After all, it appears the singer-songwriter has hit her peak, and perhaps now she is beginning to hit a roadblock in her career.
Swift also writes a diss-love track for singer Charli XCX, titled “Actually Romantic.” In the song, she takes hits at XCX, saying things such as “I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave/High-fived my ex and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me/Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face.” Many people online have criticized Swift for this song, as it seems Swift is responding to XCX’s song “Sympathy is a knife” from her 2024 album Brat. However, unlike “Actually Romantic,” “Sympathy is a knife” discusses the complex relationships that exist within the music industry where female musicians are constantly compared and pitted against one another. XCX is vulnerable in this track, discussing how “This one girl taps my insecurities/Don’t know if it’s real or if I’m spiraling” and “’Cause I couldn’t even be her if I tried.” People online have expressed how Swift used this song as a cheap opportunity to create beef with XCX. They’ve also noted how Swift has never said anything about XCX until the musician had the most successful year of her entire career thus far, with her 2024 album Brat becoming a cultural phenomenon.
Despite these criticisms, there are some good songs on this album, but they just don’t compare to previous songs Swift has released. My favorite track at the moment is “Honey,” which is a song about Travis Kelce in which Swift compares past terms of endearments she has been called by other people and how Kelce has redefined her negative connotations with those words. During the bridge, Swift sings, “When anyone called me late night/He was screwin’ around with my mind/Askin’, ‘What are you wearin’?’/Too high to remember in the morning/And when anyone called me ‘Lovely’/They were findin’ ways not to praise me/But you say it like you’re in awe of me/And you stay until the morning/Honey.” Through this song, you can see that Swift is genuinely happy in her life now, and she has finally found someone who treats her right and loves her for who she is.
Another song I enjoyed was “Opalite.” In an interview Swift did with Capital FM as part of the Showgirl promotion, she discusses the inspiration behind the song, including how Travis Kelce’s birthstone is Opal. However, she mentions that opalite is a man-made opal, and happiness can also be caused by man. In the song, Swift sings, “You were dancing through the lightning strikes/Sleepless in the onyx night/But now the sky is opalite/Oh oh oh oh, oh my Lord/Never met no one like you before/You had to make your own sunshine/But now the sky is opalite.” This song is a feel-good love song, illustrating the paths Swift and Kelce had to take in their lives until they eventually found each other, and how their happiness was caused by themselves and not any other outside force.
Overall, The Life of a Showgirl is an album that was pretty disappointing. For someone like Taylor Swift, she will never be able to satisfy every single person who listens to her music, but from what I’ve seen online, many fans agree that this is the worst album she’s put out to date.
To be honest, I agree with these fans. Swift has built her brand on being raw and vulnerable. Every album she puts out, she always puts 100% of herself into them. Showgirl, though, feels surface-level. It almost feels like Swift just wanted to release an album for the profit, and not really because she had something to say. In fact, it’s only been about a year and a half since the release of The Tortured Poets Department. On top of that, since 2020, Swift has released five studio albums including Showgirl and has rereleased four past projects. It appears that Swift has gotten so used to putting out album after album that she has maybe forgotten about the need for quality over quantity.
The criticism has not seemed to bother Swift herself. In interviews she’s done since the album’s release, she has discussed how happy it’s made her to create it and put it out into the world. To those who don’t like the album, she says to them, “you’re helping.“
