Her engagement broke the internet, she’s won over 100 prestigious musical awards, and she’s running off the success of a worldwide phenomenon of the Eras Tour. Taylor Swift is a global superpower. Last week, Swift released her electrified new album, “The Life Of A Showgirl.” This is Swift’s first new album since the end of her famous and economy-boosting Eras Tour, as well as her first album since the announcement of the return of her masters to her custody.

Since the announcement of the new project on her now fiance Travis Kelce’s podcast “New Heights,” fans have been anxiously awaiting the new album for two months now. The cover artwork features Swift, secluded, in a bathtub, partly submerged in water, with a teal and orange color scheme. 

For this album, Swift brought back her previous producers Max Martin and Shellback, who worked with her on projects like “1989” and “Red” before she began predominantly working with Jack Antonoff. Martin is a pop powerhouse, producing many popular pop songs like Katy Perry’s “Roar.”

The glitz and glam of the album is based on the concept of a showgirl, meaning a female performer in a theatrical or musical performance, often in shiny flamboyant feathered clothing. Swift has been inspired by this image for a while now, notably in the “Bejeweled” music video back in 2022 and her “Tortured Poets Department” set during the Eras Tour. 

The album starts off really strong with “The Fate of Ophelia.” The beat is fun, and it’s lyrically interesting. Swift is alluding to William Shakespeare’s famous play “Hamlet.” In the song, she says that her lover “saved” her from the fate of Ophelia in the play, where her lover Hamlet drives her to madness and eventual death. It’s a really well done reference and Martin did a great job of production.

The next two songs are also good. “Elizabeth Taylor,” a reference to the 1940s-1960s Hollywood legend, was a big standout for me. It is very entertaining sonically, and the lyrics are not groundbreaking, but they still keep my attention. “Opalite” has great storytelling, and an appreciable beat. 

“Father Figure” is just okay. One distinct lyric that I really liked from this song is from the second verse, “Your thoughtless ambition sparked the ignition on foolish decisions which led to misguided visions.”  The rhyming is really intriguing here, and it’s just a really good line that should get its flowers in an otherwise uninteresting song. 

“Eldest Daughter” is nearly the worst of the worst. It genuinely seems like a “Saturday Night Live” skit version of a Taylor Swift song. Upon first listen I facepalmed. Every time you think that the song is starting to be serious and maybe even good, it’s ruined with laughable forced slang terms like “savage” and “fire.” It’s not clear what Swift was going for, but the chorus could be based on her chorus from “White Horse,” (2008) as it follows the same chord progression. Still, it feels completely out of place and makes the entire song just seem like it’s supposed to be funny, but maybe that’s what she was going for; however, the message is confusing with the random serious and well-written lyrics in between the unserious chorus.

Moving on, “Ruin The Friendship” is also a pretty good song. It is another good example of the classic Swift storytelling. It reminds me a lot of her “Fearless” and “Speak Now” storytelling style. 

“Actually Romantic” is an alleged diss-track against her former opener from the Reputation tour, Charli XCX, addressing their bad blood. When you compare it to XCX’s track allegedly about Swift, “Sympathy is a knife,” there’s an interesting juxtaposition. XCX’s track details her insecurities while Swift’s is an outright attack. The production on this song is boring and the lyrics are just cliche shady song lyrics. It falls flat on becoming an iconic comeback song like it was meant to be.

“Wi$h Li$t” is a nice love song. It’s sweet and it gets the job done for what it’s supposed to be. Similarly, “Wood” is really fun sonically. The lyrics are interesting enough, but like the previous song, it gets the job done for what it is supposed to be. 

“CANCELLED!” is where it hits the deep end as far as cringe-worthy lyrics are concerned. “Did you girlboss too close to the sun” is an outrageously questionable lyric. It makes you wonder how it ended up on the album without any issues, not even as a bonus track. Musically, it sounds boring.  It seems like she is just putting buzz-words into a song and expecting people to label it as artistic.

The second to last track of the album, “Honey,” is easily danceable and a cute fast-paced romantic song. It’s overall fun. 

The last song and title track on the album ends it off the way it started, decently strong. “The Life of a Showgirl” is an all around good song. The storytelling keeps my attention, and the production is very showgirl-inspired, and very well done.  It’s a really strong song, and I will definitely be relistening to this one. 

Sabrina Carpenter’s feature was vital to the song and I really liked the addition of the audio clip of her opening for the Eras Tour. It was a nice emotional touch and adds to the showgirl theme. 

If you love fun, catchy pop songs but aren’t interested in the lyrical side of things, this album is for you. If you love lyrical, emotional, serious ballads, this album isn’t for you. This may be why folklore” and “evermore” fans are having a hard time adjusting. 

Swift shows her growth on this album, not always for the better, but it shows the new direction that she is planning on pursuing for her next few projects. It is definitely a unique twist to her discography. Overall, this album is not Swift’s best, but has a few standouts that are sure to make their mark, and now, we know the life of a showgirl.