The Art of Almost: The Life of a Showgirl Review

There’s a kind of thrill that comes with any new Taylor Swift album release. She’s reached the point in her superstardom where she’s impossible to avoid. If you haven’t heard of her newest album, you’ve definitely heard songs from it before. And if you haven’t heard it, you’ve definitely heard of it. Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, marks a decisive return to radio pop for Swift. As someone who hasn’t followed her music since 2020’s more alternative/folk sounding folklore and evermore, when I heard that Max Martin and Shellback were returning, I was excited! How could I not be? The trio’s last albums, Red and 1989, were played on repeat in elementary school. With her seemingly inescapable presence everywhere you look, I found myself becoming more and more of a Taylor Swift hater. Maybe Showgirl will change my mind. 

For the first time in a long time, I can confidently say that the songwriting is the weakest link in a Taylor Swift album. While some moments shine with the lyrical prowess Swift’s become so known for (she’s the newest nominee for the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the songwriter-artist of the decade, and compared to the greats with those “Taylor Swift or Shakespeare” quizzes), the problem that most plagues The Life of a Showgirl is the single misplaced lyric that takes you out the song, ruining an otherwise solid track. 

“Father Figure,” an interesting insight into the music industry's exploitation of young artists told through an extended metaphor with a label executive being the "father figure," features a strong vocal performance from Swift, and the lyrics’ satire with imagery sprinkled in comprises some of the album’s most convincing songwriting. Just see the song's opening lines: 

“When I found you, you were young, wayward, lost in the cold

Pulled up to you in the Jag', turned your rags into gold” 

That is, until you're hit with the bombshell:

"I can make deals with the devil because my d***'s bigger."

It’s crude in that it’s trying to be provocative, but it lands as off-putting and a little embarrassing. Speaking of crude, “Wood” may be the most egregious song Swift has ever made. The song’s sexual double entendres are so obvious and juvenile (“forgive me, it sounds cocky?” Really?) I find it hard to believe that this is the same person that wrote the rest of the album. For someone of Swift’s status and experience, I would expect the writing across this entire album to be more mature, more refined. She’s earned every single songwriter accolade imaginable, yet the lyrics have regressed to bad d*** jokes about Travis Kelce. 

And no, even the album’s lead single, “The Fate of Ophelia,” (yes, of Hamlet) is not free from the jarring and awkward lyricism:

“Keep it one hundred on the land, thе sea, the sky

pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes”

This wanders too far from the literary tone that much of the song suggests. This track would remind most listeners of her 2009 “Love Story,” a song heavily based on Romeo and Juliet. I was expecting “The Fate of Ophelia” to be earnest, charming, filled with literary allusions—just as “Love Story” was—and the song delivers on exactly those points. The verses effectively paint Ophelia as a tragic figure, and I found the message of the song (being saved from Ophelia’s fate) to be sweet. I like the track, but like much of Showgirl’s writing, it’s filled with “almost” and “otherwise” moments that would be amazing if not for one or two lines that break the song’s magic completely. The proximity of Hamlet references and archaic words like “‘Tis” to slang like “keep it one hundred” and “vibes” do not do the theme of the song justice. “The Fate of Ophelia” comes so close to being a great song, but just barely misses the mark. Similarly, on “Eldest Daughter,” lyrics like:

"every joke's just trolling and memes,"

"so we all dressed up as wolves, and we looked fire

But I'm not a bad b****

And this isn't savage"

have the same jarring effect. They completely derail the piano-and-guitar ballad’s gorgeous melancholic atmosphere. Slang-y word choice and swearing do not look good with Swift’s narrative and imaginative songwriting style, nor the theme of the album (which is, keep in mind, Hollywood glamour). 

It’s a shame, because the bridge on "Eldest Daughter" features the album's most graceful and memorable moment: 

"We lie back 

A beautiful, beautiful time-lapse 

Ferris wheels, kisses, and lilacs 

And things I said were dumb

 'Cause I thought that I'd never find that

Beautiful, beautiful life that

Shimmers that innocent light back

Like when we were young." 

It’s a bridge you have to hear to believe. 

My praises can also be sung for “Opalite,” a song about finding your own happiness, which is certainly the album’s highlight. The use of colors to represent emotion and symbolic gemstones ("Sleepless in the onyx night / But now, the sky is opalite") is reminiscent of Swift’s 2012 song, "Red" ("Losing him was blue, like I'd never known / Missing him was dark gray, all alone"). It creates the same vibrant and vivid effect here just as it did all those years ago. “Opalite” is a groovy, catchy dance-pop song that’s impossible not to get up and dance to. It’s clear that Swift still has her songwriting skill, even if it’s rarely shown on this album. 

As for Max Martin and Shellback’s production, it certainly doesn’t disappoint. At the very least, nothing is blatantly offensive about their arrangements. The instrumentation is ornate and smooth and exactly what you’d expect for an album of this calibre, along with the glamorous showgirl theme. Though, in pop music, perfect production is rarely distinguished from perfectly passable production. And here, it’s technically pristine—I can’t find anything to complain about, and that’s why most of this review is focused on lyricism—but it lacks the personality that defined the trio’s earlier work (namely 1989). Some moments come close, like the vocal layering and acoustic guitar during the emotional bridge of “Eldest Daughter” or the climax of “Father Figure” at the final chorus. But still, no instrumental here has the immediate punch of “Blank Space,” or the infectious groove of the guitar riff in “Style.” Songs on The Life of a Showgirl just don't get stuck in my head like other Taylor Swift songs do, and I blame it all on Max Martin and Shellback. 

I originally wanted to write way more, criticisms and compliments alike. But at the end of the day, no matter how much I write, the truth is that The Life of a Showgirl brings nothing new to the table. Every one of my criticisms are of missteps that she's made countless times before. Her bad lyricism dates back to at least 2019, on Lover, and uninspiring production to 2017’s Reputation. And I constantly found myself comparing songs on it to previous Taylor Swift songs, because every idea that’s executed well on Showgirl, Swift has done before. Take “Elizabeth Taylor,” which discusses Swift's fame and her time under the spotlight. But I found myself comparing it to songs like “Wildest Dreams” and “the last great american dynasty,” which also reference Old Hollywood in some way. Out of the three, however, I found “Elizabeth Taylor” to be the weakest addition. It just doesn’t draw up the imagery that the other two songs do, especially when it’s the perfect song to let shine the autofictional and imaginative style of writing Swift has become most known for. 

Swift says that this album “comes from the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place” she’s been in her life, and maybe that’s the issue. She’s a billionaire, Showgirl’s been at number one for 7 weeks in a row, and it seems like she’s even found true love. When you’re that successful and happy, what else is there to write about? At best, you can call the album a triumphant victory lap, and at worst, it’s lazy. With more than 30 versions of the album to boost sales (a condemnable tactic), this album isn't leaving anytime soon. And long-time fans of Taylor Swift willing to look past certain qualities of the album will find in The Life of a Showgirl 41 minutes of new music to listen to on repeat. For the rest of us that were expecting a return to form, though, this album is a letdown wrapped in glitter (not even that much glitter, at that…). It’s an album that leaves me resigned to the fact that Swift has mastered the business of music, but has perhaps lost sight of the art.