The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/oct/03/taylor-swift-the-life-of-a-showgirl-review wasn't very kind to this album but I don't get it. This is a girl in a happy place enjoying some dick while dealing with some scars with a couple of light clapback tracks. It's a good sound. Not sure why the expectation is that this has to be some kind of melodic masterpiece every time. I liked it front to back.
I read the Guardian review and actually found it pretty thoughtful. He does say the album is a pleasant listen, but it's a critic's job to dig deeper. Why would it matter to a critic if she's happy? Anyway, as a former music writer I guess I'm here on the defense. Criticism is good! The biggest popstar in the world should be able to withstand the analysis.
Honestly, it sort of feels similar to me to the way that critics don't take comedies or lighter fiction as seriously as Important Movies or Books About Suffering. I love the Taylor of folklore, evermore, and TTPD, so this album probably won't be in my top five of her work but it is fun and bright and happy/horny ... there should be more space for judging creative works on those merits too.
Taylor set her reputation as a songwriter, not a singer. I think it was about the time people found out she wrote Better Man for Big Little Town. People have been looking for that type of writing from Taylor.
I share Lainey’s feelings on the title track “The Life of a Showgirl”. Unfortunately - I can’t say the same for the rest of the album which I personally found to be unlistenable. But I’m happy for all the swifties who are having a great day today.
When I listened the first time while concurrently reading the lyrics, I was not into it. When I just listened to it, I came along for the ride (@lainey stole this from your piece, which was spot on, as always)
I’ll have to listen without reading the lyrics. I always read lyrics on my first listen of any record simply because being a Mariah fan has trained me to pay attention to the words being sung. Maybe I might have a different opinion if I listen with a less critical lens.
I think for me it was the actual lyrics. The melodies are fun, the production on majority of the songs are also strong enough. But the lyrics to me felt very juvenile. I think this just comes down to personal taste as well, but given that songwriting is one of her main draws, I was disappointed. I also feel that the actual concept of the record and the “showgirl” of it all was lost in translation.
I made the mistake of reading the lyrics on my first listen and it killed some of the songs for me. Can confirm that the whole album works better when you're not reading the words.
I'm glad someone is brave enough to say it. I think there's a fair amount to dig into re: Taylor's lyrics not ever really evolving + the concept Lainey always refers to of fame arresting personal development. Which is of course an interesting conundrum given that Taylor herself is constantly trying to evolve for fear of being replaced, yet she always seems to go back to/can't fully get away from the same sort of writing that made her famous in the first place (at a--literally--juvenile age).
Totally agree about the concept not working. I can get on board with the idea of peeling back the curtain on the life of a showgirl, but I really don’t think that’s what came through as the organizing principle of this album from the lyrics. I Can Do it With a Broken Heart did that idea much better than any of the songs on this album.
lmfao something to be said here about the comments that are being made re: taylor becoming too big to be edited that applies to not just the lyrics of the album but potentially a fair amount of the rollout as well.
I feel like she excels as a lyricist when she makes a specific moment feel universal (All Too Well is probably the biggest example) and that isn't really present on the album and agreed about the theming. I found some of the lyrics about dealing with fame and the industry especially to be pretty unevolved from her position 10 years ago, especially compared with someone like Adela or even Charli XCX.
Completely agree on your last point, I was wondering if she was trying to tell everyone that the life of a showgirl, despite all the glamor, is just as boring as everyone else? lol. Also, I don't disagree with your thoughts that the lyrics are juvenile, I just think that I'm appreciating the ability to listen to music without needing to be too deep/heavy, so that's why I'm enjoying the juvenile-ness of it all. The world is otherwise too sad/awful, corny puns about her fiance's big dick are what I need these days:)
I haven’t listened to it yet; I hated TTPD lyrically, and my concern since then is that she’s become so insulated that no one is willing to tell her that her every thought isn’t lyrically genius.
I feel like I lost the connection between the Album's tittle and the lyrics as well. why not call it "infatuated" instead? I guess I was expecting i to be more related to her life as a performer in comparison to by-gone "showgirls" as the song titles suggested.
I would personally love, though I'm not sure she as a person is capable of doing this, but for Taylor to go have some babies (if that is what she wants, though it seems like she's saying as much in this album) and take like five years off and live your damn life. Do something else creatively, or do nothing at all but chill, but pull an Adele and go have some experiences outside of the public eye that you then write about and we hear about a couple years later. Sometimes it seems like she just needs to sit on her songs - she writes them in the moment she's feeling them - perhaps they'd be better served going through a re-write six months later after she's had some time to reflect?
I would really love for her to let us miss her. I appreciate all the work she's done and is doing, but stepping back for a year or two would go a long way in terms of impact when she comes back.
I love this take. I saw someone saying that she is not creating culture with these albums but just responding to it which is a way to create but maybe not the most interesting way to create.
This, to me, is one of the major differences between Beyonce and Taylor. They're both huge artists but Beyonce is very much intentional about wanting to create culture/that being her number one priority. The same cannot be said for Taylor.
I almost don't feel like she's a personal artist anymore. I think she's more a business like Apple where they need to release new products every x number of years. I totally agree that she needs to just go live privately but idk if she's capable of that.
Couldn’t agree more. So much of her recent works just feel like rough drafts. If they were allowed to breathe a little bit and allow her to take the best parts of lots of things and become more, she might be more interesting. Also agree with whoever said that maybe she is surrounded by people not willing to give enough constructive criticism.
I did see in one of her BBC interviews that she is not planning to tour any time soon, and I think might point to her planning to maybe do just that... pull back for a few years, enjoy her happy personal life, and rest a bit. She's earned it and her longterm work will probably be better for it.
Aldo, how does she leaves "easter eggs" from two albums ago, but she is writing songs about her past year and a half? is this why there is a disconnect between the album title and the(she had planned all this new area around it) but the songs don't really relate to the title? (IMPO) this does not mean I didn't like it, but I do feel we were all expecting something different. Her albums always grow on me the more I listen to them, so I can't judge on a first listen
Taylor Swift can't write a bad album. Bad songs sure but not bad albums. For the record I organically like this album because it is VERY Taylor and I am a born swiftie, so my own personal tastes are naturally drawn to her artistic sensibilities. I know in my bones it will grow on me like TTPD. For some people, the issue may have started when Taylor presented this as an album with 12 bangers front to back. On Trav's podcast she really made it seem like it was 1989 2.0: laden with Billboard Top 5 melodic songwriting and hooks and signature bridges. This album isn't that catchy and there aren't many great hooks and signature bridges. It is good, just not what she promised. The album will grow on fans and critics like TTPD did. 96% of the time I fucking love Taylor’s writing, and nothing about the lyrics surprise me on this record, but musically it's 6/10 for me. What is interesting is Max Martin did not make Taylor tailor her lyrics to his melodic math as he did with 1989 and reputation. I was expecting that, and yet she's still quite verbose. My reaction to this album is positive. I also think Taylor does need to take at least a year-long break from making music. She has proven incapable of longer; Taylor's album release dates do not reflect her music-making, which is within a year or after a year from the last album writing process, and usually during a tour. While I relish all songs and any kind of communication from Taylor Swift, I do have a preference. My favorite Taylor Swift songs are songs about her interiority and less about her fame, and are not dependent on her metaverse. One of the best songs she's ever written in the last 3 years is "I Hate It Here." It has the magic Taylor Swift alchemy of being extremely specific to her unique personal experience while also being universal, and the lyrics are also just exquisite. "I Look In People's Windows" and "The Black Dog" are also great for these reasons. This twitter user "abby"'s critique reflects a lot of the criticism I see of the album, that in the last three years she's quickly released under-edited albums with "unimaginative melodies, recycled scansion and meter, lyrics filled with buzzwords, and marketing that does not represent the work." https://x.com/abbeysbartlets/status/1973898899715969408
I don't disagree that Taylor has been stagnant sonically since Midnights and that this album isn't much of a sonic progression. The vague 70s sound is kinda dull to me, but in fairness I don't naturally gravitate towards music from before 1983, so it's a personal taste thing. I acknowledge that the music of the 70s was great, but it's not what I personally listen to, and I prefer how Taylor took those influences on Red and molded them within her Taylor Swift Craft while still evolving her sound. I ultimately disagree with abby because this album is about...wait for it...the life of a showgirl. It's going to be VERY meta and about her fame and she's going to do a media blitz. Showgirls are not relatable, not universal. Taylor Swift is the most famous woman in the world, to some degree she can't NOT factor in her metaverse and fame into her songwriting. This album feels like the start of a new phase of her career and life and I can't wait to see what is next. I can't even do song analysis because it's too new.
The Charli stuff...Taylor's policy is that if you talk shit about her behind her back, it's free game to shit on you. She may be a billionaire and Charli is not, but Taylor is a person and she's allowed to be a person and express that personhood in her music. And Taylor Swift actually does have a track record of being nice until provoked. Now, she is sensitive and has an ego so what provokes her may not be "worthy" of slapping back but I believe her when she said she minds her business because she really does mind her business generally. They'll make up in like 5 years. And you know Charli fucking LOVES this attention from the most famous, popular woman in the world. And it's not an insult to say Charli does coke. Charli um writes about it all the time. Charli fans really are in a tizzy on twitter lol. What's funny to me is Sympathy Is A Knife is a better song than Actually Romantic. It's not as bad as Swish Swish, but Taylor really wrote a relative Swish Swish. You just have to laff. Charli sure is.
Thank you, Ksenia, for your takes. I've been questioning my sanity over here wondering if I'm being crazy for liking this album but your write up made me feel better. There are a couple of clunkers on here but overall it's very good. Tbh, there are a couple of songs on 1989 that I hate so for me it's 1989 2.0. lol
Your logic makes sense. 1989 is god-tier for me with Red and Folklore, but there ARE some songs on there I don't think are good songs like Bad Blood and controversially All You Had To Do Was Stay. But unlike the songs on this album, Bad Blood is an objectively catchy banger of lab-grown pop production perfection that does occasionally hit on the radio or eating a greasy taco. I needed more of that on this album. TTPD at least had "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys" and "Down Bad" and "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart."
Down Bad feels psychotic to me. It’s a great pop misery of a break-up song stuck in the middle of a recount of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I hate how much I love “fuck it I can’t have us, I might just not get up” because for whatever reason I just can’t with the beam me up of it.
Yep All You Had to Do Was Stay and How You Get The Girl are straight skips for me. I think Opalite and The Life of Ophelia are bops on par with the ones you mentioned from TTPD.
Now that I've listened, the first 3 tracks of TLOAS are quite poppy and catchy. Still not in her pop echelon for me personally but are album highlights and really good. I really, really like Father Figure.
Also I loved what you said about max martin clearly not making her tailor her lyrics to his musical math. I think that right there is why this album wasn’t 1989 2.0. The lyrics are not what she did with him previously. Which is fine! But don’t tell us that’s what’s coming 😂
Thank you Heather. I live in fear of disappointing my fellow Squawkers (probably have already). I am still microwaved but I slowly but surely am liking the album more and more. Eldest Daughter and Actually Romantic are the weakest links for me so far. Wood is making me cringe into a raisin but maybe it will grow on me like the cringe of London Boy. But London Boy isn't about Joe Alwyn's dick.
I went to the movie thing tonight, and they played the clean version of Wood. I actually think it’s better and way less cringe!!! She should have just stuck with that one. 😂
When it comes to analyzing anything Taylor, your take is always measured and so incredibly well-written. I've been looking forward to your thoughts since we knew Taylor would be releasing a new album. Thank you, Ksenia!
Thank you Lil. I had to do paperwork and call in for juror duty today and it feels unpatriotic because Release Week, especially Release Day is actually a national holiday and I am only a citizen of Swiftdom....
I am so happy to see you feel the same way I do about how she lead us to believe it was 1989 2.0
Loving all your thoughts as usual and look forward to more! And your points about charli are well taken. I don’t like the song and it will be a skip but if charli doesn’t care I won’t 😂
“What is interesting is Max Martin did not make Taylor tailor her lyrics to his melodic math as he did with 1989 and reputation.”
Because he likely can’t now. I wonder if anyone will ever again?
I think the dissonance shows up the most on her slow songs now which is why TTPD was so hard for me to listen to - like I will probably skip Eldest Daughter more often than not.
I think part of what disappointed me is that the emphasis on the Max Martin collab made this something it wasn’t. This is a continuation of the Taylor with Antonoff not 1989 or reputation(my fav of her albums) or even folklore Taylor. I think that’s why on first listen Elizabeth Taylor is in my top 3 from this album. It has the old school Taylor pen sharpened by the max Martin melodic math.
Like so man my ambivalence with midnights and TTPD is the lack of editing. I may like the ideas but the execution makes it hard to enjoy the music. In the past even when the songs weren’t good they were never sloppy. She always had someone else in the room (or the chip on her shoulder with speak now) that could push back and say no. And it made her work super sharp and concise. I feel like Taylor is still that type A student that needs a teacher to impress. She needs to submit her work and have it graded to push her to go for the A+++. There is no one to impress anymore.
I said something along these lines in the other chat but I feel like I can distill it better here. I have a feeling this album will grow on me. Even this morning I am enjoying it more than last night. However, I do think I'm going to have to totally disengage from how Taylor promotes her albums from now on until they release (which I don't know how I'll do that since she is mono culture lol but I'll try)
Because I think her last two albums (midnights and TTPD) and now TLOASG are falling victim to her selling us them as something they are not. Tay went on that podcast and said this album was all bangers. and I am sorry that is not what this album is. All bangers is 1989. All bangers is giant chunks of rep.
I think this album is going to end up being one I like a lot. But only because I can now throw away that's the baby of 1989 and rep. And I didn't come up with that though on my own.
100% agree. Would have felt differently about this album initially if it hadn't been positioned as an album of bangers from the producers of 1989 and Rep
genuinely the first taylor album i’ve ever been disappointed by and ive been here since her debut album.
i think she is at a point in her career and life where she’s been working so consistently with no real break, no real other avenue of creative output, and very little creative experimentation and outside influence/voices in the room that she currently just doesn’t have anything new to say. and on some level, that’s fine! but so much of this album just feels like a retread of her previous retreads.
it’s like the scope of her art and creativity has shrunk so much and the picture she paints with each album gets smaller and smaller. there’s so much self-referencing now that it’s almost cannibalizing her.
the thing im most disappointed by is the fact that literally none of the songs except the title song have anything to do with the life of a showgirl. if anyone knows what that life is like, it’s her!! there is soooo much she could say about that life!!! she said more about it in the accompanying poems than she did in the songs. but she didn’t actually seem to want to make that album, she just wanted to do the fun photoshoot as a showgirl
I'm not sure Life of a Showgirl needs to be taken so literally. To me, she touches on a lot of aspects of her life that go with being under such an intense spotlight, whether it's her love life, her and her friends' 'dramas', or other aspects of her life that a normal person wouldn't experience so intensely. Maybe that's the life of a showgirl reference here.
I think it's cause one of the first things that was fed to me was that Guardian review and Lainey's suggestion that half the tracks were fillers on first listen and I had a different reaction. I just listened to it a second time and I agree a COUPLE are less than, but overall its a good listen. And a couple of the tracks are also OUTSTANDING. If not for the music then for their gossip relevance.
i guess i take it more literally bc she made it pretty literal with the photoshoot, with the album poems, and with half the stuff she’s saying in interviews. the life of a showgirl being more metaphorical really only applies to the album itself, but is quite incongruous to alllll the other stuff she’s saying and putting out there.
maybe we should only care about the album, but i guess she’s trained me over the past two decades to also know she wants us to pay attention to the other stuff too
I think the stuff in Eldest Daughter about being on the internet is kind of part of this, too. There's so much to explore about Taylor's specific relationship with the internet and fandom--how she was like "i never go on there!" in the New Heights podcast but then you listen to Eldest Daughter and it's like hmmm
It’s mentioned in a later comment, but I really feel like she needs to go away and LIVE for a minute. I genuinely thought she’d disappear for at least a year after Eras, since she’s been nonstop since Folklore in 2020. To say I was surprised by the news of a new album would be an understatement. It actually gave me a sense of foreboding when she announced it on the podcast. Girl, you’ve been pop culture’s main character for FIVE years straight. Go bake bread, cross stitch, play with your cats and nieces, and just be a person, not a supernova.
i mostly just want her to solely focus on other creative outlets for a few years. i want her to make art that isn’t a taylor swift album. i want her to make art while not also making albums in the background. focus on her movie, write music for other people, make a film score. get into lawn sculpting. IDK just anything creative that isn’t a taylor swift album
I agree, and for me this isn't about lyrics. I only pay attention to the lyrics if I can easily make them out while listening. This is a perfectly serviceable pop album but there's nothing groundbreaking or even that interesting about the music. It's fine.
totally agree. it’s Fine. i don’t hate the album, but i also don’t really like it either. it’s similar to how i feel about lover. i guess i like most the songs on an individual level, but i don’t like the album as a whole. i will listen to some songs and forget the rest exist
I said this in the chat yesterday, but to repeat myself 🤣 I think the album cover of Taylor in the bathtub was very intentional. Because of the showgirl theme we (including me) were expecting more glitz with this album. After a second listen, I was like, “Oh, she’s not putting on a show for us, she’s taking a damn bath after the show!” I do think the album is very cohesive from that standpoint. I like about half of the songs very much, and actually woke up with Life of a Showgirl ringing in my mind. I think this album has Taylor taking more risks with her actual singing in a way she really hasn’t before. All in all I liked it! It’s not going to be my #1 Taylor album but it’s not bad!
This is definitely her best singing since reputation. Maybe it’s the practice from the eras tour (though I would think it would tire her voice out more) but she sounds more comfortable using her voice as an instrument.
Same thought! I was totally expecting showgirly-1989esq. But she's not 22 anymore, and this is the banger for old tired cat ladies (like me!), who's so tired you just jump in the bath after a day of work with all your clothes on. I'm surprisingly all about this sound/vibe.
I'm a huge Charli fan, have been since before Sucker, but with the way she runs her mouth about every other woman in the industry she's had a whacking coming for a while and the way Taylor handled it here is very funny to me.
Honestly I feel like Charli is LIVING. She’s a cool girl who was insecure that she was invisible next to Taylor’s star power. She now knows she got to Taylor and was in her head. The existence of the song repudiates everything taylor claims within it. It’s basically I forgot you existed 2.0.
It doesn’t help that the worst thing she could say was that Charli is a mean girl cokehead. Charli made a whole critically adored album saying she’s a mean girl coke head. AND Taylor went and gave charli the best line with boring Barbie.
Like you said Charli talks a lot of shit shes not new to this. She’s not gonna run from this she’s gonna laugh. Plus the song is cringe and Lorde’s response to Charli makes Taylor look like self involved.
Ps I’ve been on both of their bandwagons since each of their first singles so this is hilarious to me. Cuz Charli was right they are complete opposites. And with Matt Healy being a fuckboi who probably made it clear to his friends he wasn’t serious about Taylor, they were also never gonna like each other
This is very interesting. I don’t know Charli XCX beyond her music and the video for 360 😂 I loved her (legal) wedding day look and enjoy her aesthetic to a certain degree. But other than that, I’m not up on my Charli / The 1975 / Taylor stuff. If she’s been taking pot shots for a while about many, maybe Taylor decided to take one for the team? Either way, I still think Tay Tay should save her venom for actual villains like Justin Baldoni.
Yeah, it's funny to see this track interpreted as punching down against poor defenseless Charli, because everyone who's followed her and her insane beef history with other female artists know she's kind of a demon. Where was the "this is punching down" energy when Charli won a Grammy for a song calling FKA Twigs a broke whore who fucks for clout, or publicly accused Camila Cabello of vague "plagiarism" because she was afraid of having another hyperpop-influenced album come out too close to Brat, or encouraged all her fans to harass Rina Sawayama because Rina called her BFF Matty Healy a racist? Not to mention all the times she's tried to come for Taylor since ~2018 and Taylor just hasn't taken the bait and responded until now. Charli is a great artist and a fun performer, but her insecurity leads her to go after basically any other female artist she views as an artistic rival or who is more successful than her, and it's just kind of *chef's kiss* to frame your response to that energy as "You want to fuck me so bad it makes you look stupid." Loving this whole thing in the same way I love pro wrestling, tbh!
Also, Canceled is pretty clearly about Blake and Justin Baldoni, so good news is that's done.
Fair, but then maybe a better song would be for Taylor to come at Charli for what she says about other people, and not just her own grievances? It's not a bad song, it's just not a great song either.
I feel like this is exactly what Cancelled is? It's one of my faves on the album! This and Father Figure. I love a vengeful Taylor, even if it's make believe (still love no body no crim from evermore, and vigilante shit).
On one of the radio shows, Taylor said the title track has crowd sounds from the final Eras show in Vancouver and since I was at that show, I am now claiming I'm on a Taylor album!
Overall I'm pretty happy but want to sit with the album a lot more to see what continues to pop out at me as I learn the lyrics.
I will never not appreciate that Taylor truly does demand the best out of everyone, including her haters. That really does take rare talent from an artist.
Bahahahaha, indeed! They're totally different artists doing different things with their music so it's not fair to compare Taylor to Kendrick. That said, I don't ever see Taylor winning a Pulitzer but then again, would she even want to?
I realized that after I hit the arrow to send this. 😂😂😂😂😂😂 Okay, I still say she's not winning a Pulitzer. Her lyrics have never struck me as being about much else but her. Like they're not examining racial disparities or calling out pedophiles, you know? DAMN. was a lyrical masterpiece that I can't even begin to explain. The kind of thing that has so many beautifully crafted layers, you're always finding something new on each listen. Maybe it's because I'm not a Swiftie, but I don't see that depth to her music.
Oh FULLY AGREED. I am not someone who thinks taylor swift should be our poet laureate although I 100% think SHE sees herself as someone who should/could be. kdot earned his pulitzer, although the establishment definitely considered his pick to be unconventional at best at the time, but there's no doubt in my mind he's digging into topics at a level of thought and creative expression many of us will never achieve.
People keep saying that as though no one else has ever done it. I'm happy for everyone who enjoys her but can we please stop acting like she's the only pop artist who has ever made an audience feel things before?
Okay so I'm not here to prognosticate on whether Taylor should or could win a Pulitzer and I'm CERTAINLY not gong to compare TS to KL. BUT - I do think Taffy Brodesser-Akner figured out the heart of a big part of TS's appeal, which I interpreted to be: Taylor Swift has found a way to make THE CULTURE value and appreciate girlhood / womanhood. Taffy said it better than I can (this is from her NYT review of the Eras Tour (I really love Taffy's writing, sorry!):
You could say that Eras is cynical; you of course would discourage disavowing your past if you needed to remarket it to your audience. But look around this stadium. You don’t enrapture an audience like this unless you’re saying something real — something these legions of girls and women have been waiting to hear: that we are more than the moment on the balcony, where romance awaits. We are also everything before and after that. What Taylor Swift knows is that it’s fun to sing about boys and men and romance, but that those moments when we stand on a balcony as the person we desire gallops toward us, or the moment that we win the affection of a person despite his allegiance to another, are only the smallest parts of a woman’s life, no matter what the movies tell you. The ways that our trust and loyalty are weaponized against us is also the dominion of femaledom — the pain we feel over it, the way we can’t ever quite forget. Those things are worth singing about, too.
I respect Taffy but I fundamentally do not buy the argument that girlhood/womanhood was not something culturally explored until Taylor Swift. Come on. There's gobs of literature and art and music by many women and men who came along well before Taylor Swift did. And I don't think Taylor has singularly managed to make that experience more culturally valued either. She's clearly been able to strike a particular chord/resonate with a lot of people (lol) but I think it's a huge stretch to say that she's the first person to validate girlhood/womanhood as a part of the cultural apparatus. Taylor's version of girlhood/womanhood is a very particular, very heterosexual, very American one as well, much less something that exists as a universal omnibus. If Taylor's version of girlhood/womanhood is the only one with any cultural merit then god help all of us whose lives don't fit into her narrative.
Also, Lainey, I agree that Taylor is best when she saves her venom for the enemies of her friends. I really hope Actually Romantic isn't about who everyone says it is, because....girl you are the Taylor Allison Swift, billionaire, happily in love, biggest, most immortal popstar on the planet. Punching down is no longer a good look for you (it never is, but especially now). So, really hoping this is actually about an ex bf who can't keep her name out of his mouth because if that's the case, good on her. Be a petty bitch, please.
i mean there’s no way it’s about anyone else! it’s explicitly about someone (1) who wrote a song about her (2) who has a boyfriend (3) and who would have an opportunity to high five matty healy about ghosting
I am happy to report the release party uses the clean versions of the songs for the younger fans. I also can report that all the grown ups in our theatre died at her introduction to Wood 😂
there was hooting and hollering in our theatre. Between that and the Father Figure “my check’s bigger” switch, it was the most engaged the audience felt!!
The Fate of Ophelia is a disco funk banger in the vein of Boney M (Rasputin!) 🪩 I’ll be taking my mirrorball dress from the eras tour for a spin on the dance floor tonight 🪩
Can we start a favourite track so far subthread! Curious what everyone’s fav song is after the first few listens. (I ask knowing that mine will change over the next couple of months)
Elizabeth Taylor! Ironically I was anticipating this to be my least favourite based on just the titles. I think the melody and lyrics are both on point and work together really well.
Elizabeth Taylor is the most max Martin song on the album. You can hear his melodic math at work. This is one of the few songs on the album where they felt like equal collaborators. It could easily slot into reputation. Everything else is for better or worse, clearly driven by Taylor with max working in her sandbox. He said no to multi-syllable words and she listened.
My immediate favs are Elizabeth Taylor and father figure. I like cancelled and honey. Life of the showgirl is one that took me a minute but feels like will become my top song in 3 months. I can really see Taylor writing a Broadway musical when she ages out of pop stardom.
The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/oct/03/taylor-swift-the-life-of-a-showgirl-review wasn't very kind to this album but I don't get it. This is a girl in a happy place enjoying some dick while dealing with some scars with a couple of light clapback tracks. It's a good sound. Not sure why the expectation is that this has to be some kind of melodic masterpiece every time. I liked it front to back.
I read the Guardian review and actually found it pretty thoughtful. He does say the album is a pleasant listen, but it's a critic's job to dig deeper. Why would it matter to a critic if she's happy? Anyway, as a former music writer I guess I'm here on the defense. Criticism is good! The biggest popstar in the world should be able to withstand the analysis.
👏🏽
thank you!
Honestly, it sort of feels similar to me to the way that critics don't take comedies or lighter fiction as seriously as Important Movies or Books About Suffering. I love the Taylor of folklore, evermore, and TTPD, so this album probably won't be in my top five of her work but it is fun and bright and happy/horny ... there should be more space for judging creative works on those merits too.
Basically, it doesn't always have to be deep to be good
That is definitely what she said
Damnit Emily! I was going to make a similar joke 😂
I kind of feel like she wants us to consider it as a melodic masterpiece hence why we go in with that expectation.
Taylor set her reputation as a songwriter, not a singer. I think it was about the time people found out she wrote Better Man for Big Little Town. People have been looking for that type of writing from Taylor.
Oh damn I loooooooove that song, so much.
<3
I share Lainey’s feelings on the title track “The Life of a Showgirl”. Unfortunately - I can’t say the same for the rest of the album which I personally found to be unlistenable. But I’m happy for all the swifties who are having a great day today.
When I listened the first time while concurrently reading the lyrics, I was not into it. When I just listened to it, I came along for the ride (@lainey stole this from your piece, which was spot on, as always)
I’ll have to listen without reading the lyrics. I always read lyrics on my first listen of any record simply because being a Mariah fan has trained me to pay attention to the words being sung. Maybe I might have a different opinion if I listen with a less critical lens.
Does Mariah know Taylor? 😂😂😂
This is what I did with Tortured Poets, and it ruined it for me. I’m turning on Showgirl in the car and just letting it play.
Unlistenable is a strong reaction! Would love to know more about what caused that reaction for you, MC.
I think for me it was the actual lyrics. The melodies are fun, the production on majority of the songs are also strong enough. But the lyrics to me felt very juvenile. I think this just comes down to personal taste as well, but given that songwriting is one of her main draws, I was disappointed. I also feel that the actual concept of the record and the “showgirl” of it all was lost in translation.
Well fine! If you want to make sensible, coherent arguments about it.
I made the mistake of reading the lyrics on my first listen and it killed some of the songs for me. Can confirm that the whole album works better when you're not reading the words.
I'm glad someone is brave enough to say it. I think there's a fair amount to dig into re: Taylor's lyrics not ever really evolving + the concept Lainey always refers to of fame arresting personal development. Which is of course an interesting conundrum given that Taylor herself is constantly trying to evolve for fear of being replaced, yet she always seems to go back to/can't fully get away from the same sort of writing that made her famous in the first place (at a--literally--juvenile age).
Totally agree about the concept not working. I can get on board with the idea of peeling back the curtain on the life of a showgirl, but I really don’t think that’s what came through as the organizing principle of this album from the lyrics. I Can Do it With a Broken Heart did that idea much better than any of the songs on this album.
I feel like she would have benefitted from making this a surprise drop with fewer photos of her in showgirl outfits
lmfao something to be said here about the comments that are being made re: taylor becoming too big to be edited that applies to not just the lyrics of the album but potentially a fair amount of the rollout as well.
I feel like she excels as a lyricist when she makes a specific moment feel universal (All Too Well is probably the biggest example) and that isn't really present on the album and agreed about the theming. I found some of the lyrics about dealing with fame and the industry especially to be pretty unevolved from her position 10 years ago, especially compared with someone like Adela or even Charli XCX.
Completely agree on your last point, I was wondering if she was trying to tell everyone that the life of a showgirl, despite all the glamor, is just as boring as everyone else? lol. Also, I don't disagree with your thoughts that the lyrics are juvenile, I just think that I'm appreciating the ability to listen to music without needing to be too deep/heavy, so that's why I'm enjoying the juvenile-ness of it all. The world is otherwise too sad/awful, corny puns about her fiance's big dick are what I need these days:)
Oh I’m always here for a big dick connotation 🤣🤣 for me it was the lyrics on “eldest daughter” and “actually romantic” that had me going “huh?!”
I haven’t listened to it yet; I hated TTPD lyrically, and my concern since then is that she’s become so insulated that no one is willing to tell her that her every thought isn’t lyrically genius.
I feel like I lost the connection between the Album's tittle and the lyrics as well. why not call it "infatuated" instead? I guess I was expecting i to be more related to her life as a performer in comparison to by-gone "showgirls" as the song titles suggested.
Agree! MC will need to explain himself.
I would personally love, though I'm not sure she as a person is capable of doing this, but for Taylor to go have some babies (if that is what she wants, though it seems like she's saying as much in this album) and take like five years off and live your damn life. Do something else creatively, or do nothing at all but chill, but pull an Adele and go have some experiences outside of the public eye that you then write about and we hear about a couple years later. Sometimes it seems like she just needs to sit on her songs - she writes them in the moment she's feeling them - perhaps they'd be better served going through a re-write six months later after she's had some time to reflect?
I would really love for her to let us miss her. I appreciate all the work she's done and is doing, but stepping back for a year or two would go a long way in terms of impact when she comes back.
I love this take. I saw someone saying that she is not creating culture with these albums but just responding to it which is a way to create but maybe not the most interesting way to create.
This, to me, is one of the major differences between Beyonce and Taylor. They're both huge artists but Beyonce is very much intentional about wanting to create culture/that being her number one priority. The same cannot be said for Taylor.
I almost don't feel like she's a personal artist anymore. I think she's more a business like Apple where they need to release new products every x number of years. I totally agree that she needs to just go live privately but idk if she's capable of that.
I feel the same way about Beyonce is “just” a business, and still then her albums keep still doing something new and satisfying
Couldn’t agree more. So much of her recent works just feel like rough drafts. If they were allowed to breathe a little bit and allow her to take the best parts of lots of things and become more, she might be more interesting. Also agree with whoever said that maybe she is surrounded by people not willing to give enough constructive criticism.
I did see in one of her BBC interviews that she is not planning to tour any time soon, and I think might point to her planning to maybe do just that... pull back for a few years, enjoy her happy personal life, and rest a bit. She's earned it and her longterm work will probably be better for it.
Aldo, how does she leaves "easter eggs" from two albums ago, but she is writing songs about her past year and a half? is this why there is a disconnect between the album title and the(she had planned all this new area around it) but the songs don't really relate to the title? (IMPO) this does not mean I didn't like it, but I do feel we were all expecting something different. Her albums always grow on me the more I listen to them, so I can't judge on a first listen
Taylor Swift can't write a bad album. Bad songs sure but not bad albums. For the record I organically like this album because it is VERY Taylor and I am a born swiftie, so my own personal tastes are naturally drawn to her artistic sensibilities. I know in my bones it will grow on me like TTPD. For some people, the issue may have started when Taylor presented this as an album with 12 bangers front to back. On Trav's podcast she really made it seem like it was 1989 2.0: laden with Billboard Top 5 melodic songwriting and hooks and signature bridges. This album isn't that catchy and there aren't many great hooks and signature bridges. It is good, just not what she promised. The album will grow on fans and critics like TTPD did. 96% of the time I fucking love Taylor’s writing, and nothing about the lyrics surprise me on this record, but musically it's 6/10 for me. What is interesting is Max Martin did not make Taylor tailor her lyrics to his melodic math as he did with 1989 and reputation. I was expecting that, and yet she's still quite verbose. My reaction to this album is positive. I also think Taylor does need to take at least a year-long break from making music. She has proven incapable of longer; Taylor's album release dates do not reflect her music-making, which is within a year or after a year from the last album writing process, and usually during a tour. While I relish all songs and any kind of communication from Taylor Swift, I do have a preference. My favorite Taylor Swift songs are songs about her interiority and less about her fame, and are not dependent on her metaverse. One of the best songs she's ever written in the last 3 years is "I Hate It Here." It has the magic Taylor Swift alchemy of being extremely specific to her unique personal experience while also being universal, and the lyrics are also just exquisite. "I Look In People's Windows" and "The Black Dog" are also great for these reasons. This twitter user "abby"'s critique reflects a lot of the criticism I see of the album, that in the last three years she's quickly released under-edited albums with "unimaginative melodies, recycled scansion and meter, lyrics filled with buzzwords, and marketing that does not represent the work." https://x.com/abbeysbartlets/status/1973898899715969408
I don't disagree that Taylor has been stagnant sonically since Midnights and that this album isn't much of a sonic progression. The vague 70s sound is kinda dull to me, but in fairness I don't naturally gravitate towards music from before 1983, so it's a personal taste thing. I acknowledge that the music of the 70s was great, but it's not what I personally listen to, and I prefer how Taylor took those influences on Red and molded them within her Taylor Swift Craft while still evolving her sound. I ultimately disagree with abby because this album is about...wait for it...the life of a showgirl. It's going to be VERY meta and about her fame and she's going to do a media blitz. Showgirls are not relatable, not universal. Taylor Swift is the most famous woman in the world, to some degree she can't NOT factor in her metaverse and fame into her songwriting. This album feels like the start of a new phase of her career and life and I can't wait to see what is next. I can't even do song analysis because it's too new.
The Charli stuff...Taylor's policy is that if you talk shit about her behind her back, it's free game to shit on you. She may be a billionaire and Charli is not, but Taylor is a person and she's allowed to be a person and express that personhood in her music. And Taylor Swift actually does have a track record of being nice until provoked. Now, she is sensitive and has an ego so what provokes her may not be "worthy" of slapping back but I believe her when she said she minds her business because she really does mind her business generally. They'll make up in like 5 years. And you know Charli fucking LOVES this attention from the most famous, popular woman in the world. And it's not an insult to say Charli does coke. Charli um writes about it all the time. Charli fans really are in a tizzy on twitter lol. What's funny to me is Sympathy Is A Knife is a better song than Actually Romantic. It's not as bad as Swish Swish, but Taylor really wrote a relative Swish Swish. You just have to laff. Charli sure is.
Thank you, Ksenia, for your takes. I've been questioning my sanity over here wondering if I'm being crazy for liking this album but your write up made me feel better. There are a couple of clunkers on here but overall it's very good. Tbh, there are a couple of songs on 1989 that I hate so for me it's 1989 2.0. lol
Your logic makes sense. 1989 is god-tier for me with Red and Folklore, but there ARE some songs on there I don't think are good songs like Bad Blood and controversially All You Had To Do Was Stay. But unlike the songs on this album, Bad Blood is an objectively catchy banger of lab-grown pop production perfection that does occasionally hit on the radio or eating a greasy taco. I needed more of that on this album. TTPD at least had "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys" and "Down Bad" and "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart."
Down Bad feels psychotic to me. It’s a great pop misery of a break-up song stuck in the middle of a recount of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I hate how much I love “fuck it I can’t have us, I might just not get up” because for whatever reason I just can’t with the beam me up of it.
Yep All You Had to Do Was Stay and How You Get The Girl are straight skips for me. I think Opalite and The Life of Ophelia are bops on par with the ones you mentioned from TTPD.
Now that I've listened, the first 3 tracks of TLOAS are quite poppy and catchy. Still not in her pop echelon for me personally but are album highlights and really good. I really, really like Father Figure.
Also I loved what you said about max martin clearly not making her tailor her lyrics to his musical math. I think that right there is why this album wasn’t 1989 2.0. The lyrics are not what she did with him previously. Which is fine! But don’t tell us that’s what’s coming 😂
I just came here for Ksenia’s take. Nailed it as usual!
Thank you Heather. I live in fear of disappointing my fellow Squawkers (probably have already). I am still microwaved but I slowly but surely am liking the album more and more. Eldest Daughter and Actually Romantic are the weakest links for me so far. Wood is making me cringe into a raisin but maybe it will grow on me like the cringe of London Boy. But London Boy isn't about Joe Alwyn's dick.
I went to the movie thing tonight, and they played the clean version of Wood. I actually think it’s better and way less cringe!!! She should have just stuck with that one. 😂
Cringe into a raisin is my new motto.
When it comes to analyzing anything Taylor, your take is always measured and so incredibly well-written. I've been looking forward to your thoughts since we knew Taylor would be releasing a new album. Thank you, Ksenia!
Thank you Lil. I had to do paperwork and call in for juror duty today and it feels unpatriotic because Release Week, especially Release Day is actually a national holiday and I am only a citizen of Swiftdom....
I am so happy to see you feel the same way I do about how she lead us to believe it was 1989 2.0
Loving all your thoughts as usual and look forward to more! And your points about charli are well taken. I don’t like the song and it will be a skip but if charli doesn’t care I won’t 😂
“What is interesting is Max Martin did not make Taylor tailor her lyrics to his melodic math as he did with 1989 and reputation.”
Because he likely can’t now. I wonder if anyone will ever again?
I think the dissonance shows up the most on her slow songs now which is why TTPD was so hard for me to listen to - like I will probably skip Eldest Daughter more often than not.
I think part of what disappointed me is that the emphasis on the Max Martin collab made this something it wasn’t. This is a continuation of the Taylor with Antonoff not 1989 or reputation(my fav of her albums) or even folklore Taylor. I think that’s why on first listen Elizabeth Taylor is in my top 3 from this album. It has the old school Taylor pen sharpened by the max Martin melodic math.
Like so man my ambivalence with midnights and TTPD is the lack of editing. I may like the ideas but the execution makes it hard to enjoy the music. In the past even when the songs weren’t good they were never sloppy. She always had someone else in the room (or the chip on her shoulder with speak now) that could push back and say no. And it made her work super sharp and concise. I feel like Taylor is still that type A student that needs a teacher to impress. She needs to submit her work and have it graded to push her to go for the A+++. There is no one to impress anymore.
Eldest Daughter definitely has too many embarrassing colloquialisms, especially on a slow song.
wild for me to dislike a track 5 this much!
Yeah eldest daughter is a big miss! Definitely a skip for me.
It feels foul and I hate that for us. But it's the queen's fault, so what can we do?
and like I am a millenial! I embrace my cringe. I’m here for the cringe! But something about I’m not a bad bitch and this isn’t savage…i just can’t
Yes! Those lyrics are UGH. Especially when they follow a line about dying just from trying to seem cool. So incoherent.
Thank you for validating my love for "I Hate it Here." It's my favorite song of TTPD and people think I'm crazy when I say that.
Taylor does this to me every time - on first listen, I’m always like, huh, not for me. And then by the third I am going HARD for 4-5 songs.
For me, it’s Opalite and Father Figure by a mile. I think rhyming “liquor” with “dick’s bigger” is the best thing she’s ever done.
opalite makes me want to put on roller skates and DANCE
Yes!
hard agree!
I said something along these lines in the other chat but I feel like I can distill it better here. I have a feeling this album will grow on me. Even this morning I am enjoying it more than last night. However, I do think I'm going to have to totally disengage from how Taylor promotes her albums from now on until they release (which I don't know how I'll do that since she is mono culture lol but I'll try)
Because I think her last two albums (midnights and TTPD) and now TLOASG are falling victim to her selling us them as something they are not. Tay went on that podcast and said this album was all bangers. and I am sorry that is not what this album is. All bangers is 1989. All bangers is giant chunks of rep.
I think this album is going to end up being one I like a lot. But only because I can now throw away that's the baby of 1989 and rep. And I didn't come up with that though on my own.
YES!! Agree with you. I feel like she should not be allowed to market her own albums anymore.
Chill bops would be my description. I'll have to listen to it again but it just feels meh to me.
100% agree. Would have felt differently about this album initially if it hadn't been positioned as an album of bangers from the producers of 1989 and Rep
I actually think going forward I’m going to totally check out of her album rollouts cause she can’t be trusted 😂 then I’ll enjoy them more.
genuinely the first taylor album i’ve ever been disappointed by and ive been here since her debut album.
i think she is at a point in her career and life where she’s been working so consistently with no real break, no real other avenue of creative output, and very little creative experimentation and outside influence/voices in the room that she currently just doesn’t have anything new to say. and on some level, that’s fine! but so much of this album just feels like a retread of her previous retreads.
it’s like the scope of her art and creativity has shrunk so much and the picture she paints with each album gets smaller and smaller. there’s so much self-referencing now that it’s almost cannibalizing her.
the thing im most disappointed by is the fact that literally none of the songs except the title song have anything to do with the life of a showgirl. if anyone knows what that life is like, it’s her!! there is soooo much she could say about that life!!! she said more about it in the accompanying poems than she did in the songs. but she didn’t actually seem to want to make that album, she just wanted to do the fun photoshoot as a showgirl
I'm not sure Life of a Showgirl needs to be taken so literally. To me, she touches on a lot of aspects of her life that go with being under such an intense spotlight, whether it's her love life, her and her friends' 'dramas', or other aspects of her life that a normal person wouldn't experience so intensely. Maybe that's the life of a showgirl reference here.
Did not expect Jacek to go so hard for Showgirl today but I am loving it.
I think it's cause one of the first things that was fed to me was that Guardian review and Lainey's suggestion that half the tracks were fillers on first listen and I had a different reaction. I just listened to it a second time and I agree a COUPLE are less than, but overall its a good listen. And a couple of the tracks are also OUTSTANDING. If not for the music then for their gossip relevance.
Same! 😂🧡
i guess i take it more literally bc she made it pretty literal with the photoshoot, with the album poems, and with half the stuff she’s saying in interviews. the life of a showgirl being more metaphorical really only applies to the album itself, but is quite incongruous to alllll the other stuff she’s saying and putting out there.
maybe we should only care about the album, but i guess she’s trained me over the past two decades to also know she wants us to pay attention to the other stuff too
I think the stuff in Eldest Daughter about being on the internet is kind of part of this, too. There's so much to explore about Taylor's specific relationship with the internet and fandom--how she was like "i never go on there!" in the New Heights podcast but then you listen to Eldest Daughter and it's like hmmm
Agree, I think of it as more of "life in the spotlight" than specifically "showgirl"
It’s mentioned in a later comment, but I really feel like she needs to go away and LIVE for a minute. I genuinely thought she’d disappear for at least a year after Eras, since she’s been nonstop since Folklore in 2020. To say I was surprised by the news of a new album would be an understatement. It actually gave me a sense of foreboding when she announced it on the podcast. Girl, you’ve been pop culture’s main character for FIVE years straight. Go bake bread, cross stitch, play with your cats and nieces, and just be a person, not a supernova.
i mostly just want her to solely focus on other creative outlets for a few years. i want her to make art that isn’t a taylor swift album. i want her to make art while not also making albums in the background. focus on her movie, write music for other people, make a film score. get into lawn sculpting. IDK just anything creative that isn’t a taylor swift album
I agree, and for me this isn't about lyrics. I only pay attention to the lyrics if I can easily make them out while listening. This is a perfectly serviceable pop album but there's nothing groundbreaking or even that interesting about the music. It's fine.
totally agree. it’s Fine. i don’t hate the album, but i also don’t really like it either. it’s similar to how i feel about lover. i guess i like most the songs on an individual level, but i don’t like the album as a whole. i will listen to some songs and forget the rest exist
I said this in the chat yesterday, but to repeat myself 🤣 I think the album cover of Taylor in the bathtub was very intentional. Because of the showgirl theme we (including me) were expecting more glitz with this album. After a second listen, I was like, “Oh, she’s not putting on a show for us, she’s taking a damn bath after the show!” I do think the album is very cohesive from that standpoint. I like about half of the songs very much, and actually woke up with Life of a Showgirl ringing in my mind. I think this album has Taylor taking more risks with her actual singing in a way she really hasn’t before. All in all I liked it! It’s not going to be my #1 Taylor album but it’s not bad!
This is definitely her best singing since reputation. Maybe it’s the practice from the eras tour (though I would think it would tire her voice out more) but she sounds more comfortable using her voice as an instrument.
Same thought! I was totally expecting showgirly-1989esq. But she's not 22 anymore, and this is the banger for old tired cat ladies (like me!), who's so tired you just jump in the bath after a day of work with all your clothes on. I'm surprisingly all about this sound/vibe.
totally agree w/ all of this!
I'm a huge Charli fan, have been since before Sucker, but with the way she runs her mouth about every other woman in the industry she's had a whacking coming for a while and the way Taylor handled it here is very funny to me.
Honestly I feel like Charli is LIVING. She’s a cool girl who was insecure that she was invisible next to Taylor’s star power. She now knows she got to Taylor and was in her head. The existence of the song repudiates everything taylor claims within it. It’s basically I forgot you existed 2.0.
It doesn’t help that the worst thing she could say was that Charli is a mean girl cokehead. Charli made a whole critically adored album saying she’s a mean girl coke head. AND Taylor went and gave charli the best line with boring Barbie.
Like you said Charli talks a lot of shit shes not new to this. She’s not gonna run from this she’s gonna laugh. Plus the song is cringe and Lorde’s response to Charli makes Taylor look like self involved.
Ps I’ve been on both of their bandwagons since each of their first singles so this is hilarious to me. Cuz Charli was right they are complete opposites. And with Matt Healy being a fuckboi who probably made it clear to his friends he wasn’t serious about Taylor, they were also never gonna like each other
This is very interesting. I don’t know Charli XCX beyond her music and the video for 360 😂 I loved her (legal) wedding day look and enjoy her aesthetic to a certain degree. But other than that, I’m not up on my Charli / The 1975 / Taylor stuff. If she’s been taking pot shots for a while about many, maybe Taylor decided to take one for the team? Either way, I still think Tay Tay should save her venom for actual villains like Justin Baldoni.
Yeah, it's funny to see this track interpreted as punching down against poor defenseless Charli, because everyone who's followed her and her insane beef history with other female artists know she's kind of a demon. Where was the "this is punching down" energy when Charli won a Grammy for a song calling FKA Twigs a broke whore who fucks for clout, or publicly accused Camila Cabello of vague "plagiarism" because she was afraid of having another hyperpop-influenced album come out too close to Brat, or encouraged all her fans to harass Rina Sawayama because Rina called her BFF Matty Healy a racist? Not to mention all the times she's tried to come for Taylor since ~2018 and Taylor just hasn't taken the bait and responded until now. Charli is a great artist and a fun performer, but her insecurity leads her to go after basically any other female artist she views as an artistic rival or who is more successful than her, and it's just kind of *chef's kiss* to frame your response to that energy as "You want to fuck me so bad it makes you look stupid." Loving this whole thing in the same way I love pro wrestling, tbh!
Also, Canceled is pretty clearly about Blake and Justin Baldoni, so good news is that's done.
Ok, I did not know this about Charli, thank you for the added context!
Fair, but then maybe a better song would be for Taylor to come at Charli for what she says about other people, and not just her own grievances? It's not a bad song, it's just not a great song either.
I feel like this is exactly what Cancelled is? It's one of my faves on the album! This and Father Figure. I love a vengeful Taylor, even if it's make believe (still love no body no crim from evermore, and vigilante shit).
OMG No Body No Crime should be a bigger deal. It’s an entire movie in a song!
I feel that way about Getaway Car. An entire movie plays in my head while I’m listening to it lol.
LOVE No Body No Crime.
Yea but the Chicks did it with Goodbye Earl twenty years ago. It's a great song, but far from revolutionary or even provocative.
No Body No Crime is Goodbye Earl with all murder no fun and I love them both
Agreed
On one of the radio shows, Taylor said the title track has crowd sounds from the final Eras show in Vancouver and since I was at that show, I am now claiming I'm on a Taylor album!
Overall I'm pretty happy but want to sit with the album a lot more to see what continues to pop out at me as I learn the lyrics.
So far my favorite thing this album has given us is the following tweet, mainly because "lea michele university" is such a specific and accurate image: https://x.com/carriesnotscary/status/1973870601778634863?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1973870601778634863%7Ctwgr%5E5152f35dc2829a8cd1b62b2418b576d9a3212882%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.celebitchy.com%2F943556%2Ftaylor_swifts_the_life_of_a_showgirl_is_getting_mostly_positive_reviews%2F
I will never not appreciate that Taylor truly does demand the best out of everyone, including her haters. That really does take rare talent from an artist.
Bahahahaha, indeed! They're totally different artists doing different things with their music so it's not fair to compare Taylor to Kendrick. That said, I don't ever see Taylor winning a Pulitzer but then again, would she even want to?
"would she even want to?" are we talking about the same person? taylor wants to win everything, like she'd ever shoot down a pulitzer prize.
I realized that after I hit the arrow to send this. 😂😂😂😂😂😂 Okay, I still say she's not winning a Pulitzer. Her lyrics have never struck me as being about much else but her. Like they're not examining racial disparities or calling out pedophiles, you know? DAMN. was a lyrical masterpiece that I can't even begin to explain. The kind of thing that has so many beautifully crafted layers, you're always finding something new on each listen. Maybe it's because I'm not a Swiftie, but I don't see that depth to her music.
Oh FULLY AGREED. I am not someone who thinks taylor swift should be our poet laureate although I 100% think SHE sees herself as someone who should/could be. kdot earned his pulitzer, although the establishment definitely considered his pick to be unconventional at best at the time, but there's no doubt in my mind he's digging into topics at a level of thought and creative expression many of us will never achieve.
When she’s at her best, she gives us pop songs with emotional resonance.
People keep saying that as though no one else has ever done it. I'm happy for everyone who enjoys her but can we please stop acting like she's the only pop artist who has ever made an audience feel things before?
When pop artists are at their best, they give us pop songs with emotional resonance. Better?
but yes, 100% Kendrick and Taylor are not even in the same ballpark re: what they're trying to do with their music
Okay so I'm not here to prognosticate on whether Taylor should or could win a Pulitzer and I'm CERTAINLY not gong to compare TS to KL. BUT - I do think Taffy Brodesser-Akner figured out the heart of a big part of TS's appeal, which I interpreted to be: Taylor Swift has found a way to make THE CULTURE value and appreciate girlhood / womanhood. Taffy said it better than I can (this is from her NYT review of the Eras Tour (I really love Taffy's writing, sorry!):
You could say that Eras is cynical; you of course would discourage disavowing your past if you needed to remarket it to your audience. But look around this stadium. You don’t enrapture an audience like this unless you’re saying something real — something these legions of girls and women have been waiting to hear: that we are more than the moment on the balcony, where romance awaits. We are also everything before and after that. What Taylor Swift knows is that it’s fun to sing about boys and men and romance, but that those moments when we stand on a balcony as the person we desire gallops toward us, or the moment that we win the affection of a person despite his allegiance to another, are only the smallest parts of a woman’s life, no matter what the movies tell you. The ways that our trust and loyalty are weaponized against us is also the dominion of femaledom — the pain we feel over it, the way we can’t ever quite forget. Those things are worth singing about, too.
I respect Taffy but I fundamentally do not buy the argument that girlhood/womanhood was not something culturally explored until Taylor Swift. Come on. There's gobs of literature and art and music by many women and men who came along well before Taylor Swift did. And I don't think Taylor has singularly managed to make that experience more culturally valued either. She's clearly been able to strike a particular chord/resonate with a lot of people (lol) but I think it's a huge stretch to say that she's the first person to validate girlhood/womanhood as a part of the cultural apparatus. Taylor's version of girlhood/womanhood is a very particular, very heterosexual, very American one as well, much less something that exists as a universal omnibus. If Taylor's version of girlhood/womanhood is the only one with any cultural merit then god help all of us whose lives don't fit into her narrative.
BwahahahhahHah
Also, Lainey, I agree that Taylor is best when she saves her venom for the enemies of her friends. I really hope Actually Romantic isn't about who everyone says it is, because....girl you are the Taylor Allison Swift, billionaire, happily in love, biggest, most immortal popstar on the planet. Punching down is no longer a good look for you (it never is, but especially now). So, really hoping this is actually about an ex bf who can't keep her name out of his mouth because if that's the case, good on her. Be a petty bitch, please.
i mean there’s no way it’s about anyone else! it’s explicitly about someone (1) who wrote a song about her (2) who has a boyfriend (3) and who would have an opportunity to high five matty healy about ghosting
I would like to pretend the sentiment is about Trump but the idea of him and romance in a song makes me want to vomit.
I am happy to report the release party uses the clean versions of the songs for the younger fans. I also can report that all the grown ups in our theatre died at her introduction to Wood 😂
there was hooting and hollering in our theatre. Between that and the Father Figure “my check’s bigger” switch, it was the most engaged the audience felt!!
It was fun! No one danced in our theatre but I really liked the experience and the making of the music video stuff.
I actually like the clean versions the same or better, depending on the song
I agree! It’s kind of like Cee Lo Green’s “Forget You” … the “Fuck You” is too obvious.
Half way I kept thinking "Shes making songs for YA series soundtracks"
She has been a star for all of her life and finally has her fantasy come true
but it's time to grow up a little by living . She does this for her fans but catering to the kids is keeping you a kid as an artist.
She was cursing and it was like OooOoooo BIG GIRL TUNES
Dick got her bold and then I remembered shes 35
Madonna had like a prayer @30 Ray of Light @39
Beyonce gave us Lemonade
Mariah gave us Emancipation of Mimi
Janet Velvet Rope
Sis go live and come back
you already got the hardware, money and records
I mean Opalite is literally about a YA book (fourth wing!)
The Fate of Ophelia is a disco funk banger in the vein of Boney M (Rasputin!) 🪩 I’ll be taking my mirrorball dress from the eras tour for a spin on the dance floor tonight 🪩
And echoes of “Julia” by Jungle too. Get into it!
Can we start a favourite track so far subthread! Curious what everyone’s fav song is after the first few listens. (I ask knowing that mine will change over the next couple of months)
My favorites are The Fate of Ophelia and The Life of a Showgirl
Opalite, Cancelled, and Ophelia
Wood reminds me of London Boy, it’s camp and either you find it funny or cringe. I find it funny tbh 🤷🏼♀️
I just laugh out loud listening each time. (Yes have had multiple listens already - lol)
Opalite for me. It was the one that emotionally resonated with my romantic past, at least on this album. Also, I think it's catchy!
I find it to be the most applicable to NOT just TNT!! I'm riding so hard for this song!
Elizabeth Taylor! Ironically I was anticipating this to be my least favourite based on just the titles. I think the melody and lyrics are both on point and work together really well.
Elizabeth Taylor is the most max Martin song on the album. You can hear his melodic math at work. This is one of the few songs on the album where they felt like equal collaborators. It could easily slot into reputation. Everything else is for better or worse, clearly driven by Taylor with max working in her sandbox. He said no to multi-syllable words and she listened.
"I'd cry my eyes violet" definitely sounds like a Max Martin malapropism!
the melody on it is EXCELLENT. I like the music of this one more than the lyrics!!
I'm with you on this one! I didn't expect to like it, but I love it!
The fate of Ophelia for sure
My immediate favs are Elizabeth Taylor and father figure. I like cancelled and honey. Life of the showgirl is one that took me a minute but feels like will become my top song in 3 months. I can really see Taylor writing a Broadway musical when she ages out of pop stardom.
Cancelled is my immediate favorite.
Ophelia, Father Figure (clean; I'm sorry, but Taylor just can't pull off saying dick); TLOAS, Cancelled
Father Figure and Honey so far.
Opalite, father figure, cancelled, and wood!
I love Elizabeth Taylor, Wish List, and Cancelled
The Fate of Ophelia, Cancelled, Father Figure, and, controversially I guess, Actually Romantic!
Opalite, Wi$h LiSt, The Fate of Ophelia, Life of a Showgirl
Right now mine are Opalite, Cancelled!, Honey, and the title track.
Mine was Wi$h Li$t, along with my sister and husband. Two other friends had it in their top 5 as well (literally after one listen).