To truly grasp what’s been driving Taylor Swift recently, one only needs to jump ahead to two vibrant, playful, and audacious tracks in the latter half of her latest album, ‘The Life of a Showgirl.’
The first, ‘Actually Romantic,’ is a provocative tribute to an adversary whose intense focus feels undeniably alluring. Over a driving guitar, Swift sings, ‘It sounded nasty, but it feels like you’re flirting with me,’ culminating in a breathy admission: ‘It’s kind of making me bold.’
A few tracks later, ‘Wood’ emerges as an almost whimsical tribute to a steadfast partner. After an exuberant guitar opening reminiscent of the Jackson 5’s ‘I Want You Back,’ Swift employs a series of suggestive metaphors, sweetly concluding, ‘It ain’t hard to see / His love was the key / That truly liberated me.’
In essence, Swift is ravenous – eager to shed the conflicts of her past and fully embrace the promise of her future.
This yearning permeates her twelfth original album, a subtly powerful collection exploring the superficiality of fame and the courage required to break free from it. For over a decade, Swift has reigned as pop’s dominant force, fiercely holding her ground. While ‘Showgirl’ isn’t an outright farewell to that era, it certainly reflects critically on her past while embracing her future with an almost unrestrained joy.
Moreover, this album acts as an unstated culmination of Swift’s career thus far. In the year and a half since her previous release, ‘The Tortured Poets Department,’ Swift concluded her monumental Eras Tour, performing 149 shows across five continents, cementing its status as the highest-grossing tour in history. She also successfully reclaimed ownership of all her master recordings in a deal reportedly worth $360 million, effectively wrapping up her re-recording endeavors. To top it off, she publicly announced her engagement to football star Travis Kelce.
Each of these milestones signifies the resolution of a major Swift storyline. ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ offers a glimpse into her potential future, even as it decisively puts old conflicts to rest. This album, both catchy and substantial yet understated, refines the intimate songwriting style of her ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’ periods, delivering it with enhanced clarity and impact. Crafted entirely with Max Martin and Shellback, the renowned Swedish pop producers previously behind career-defining hits like ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ and ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ from ‘Red,’ and much of her smash album ‘1989’ (including ‘Shake It Off’ and ‘Bad Blood’), their role here isn’t to reshape her sound but to amplify her already sharp, spirited, and concise songwriting.
‘Showgirl’ is framed as the musical accompaniment to Swift’s burgeoning romantic happiness, with its first three songs deeply focused on this emotion. The serene and ecstatic ‘The Fate of Ophelia’ expresses eternal loyalty to the individual who ‘dug me out of my grave and / Saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia.’ Her earlier comments about ‘Hamlet’ on Travis Kelce’s ‘New Heights’ podcast in August now appear to have been a subtle precursor.
This is followed by the dramatic ‘Elizabeth Taylor,’ where she draws parallels between her own romantic journey and the legendary Hollywood icon, known for her tumultuous love life. Next is the relentlessly cheerful ‘Opalite,’ a quintessential Swift-Martin collaboration, echoing Fleetwood Mac and classic girl group harmonies. Swift self-critically observes in the mirror – ‘I had a bad habit of missing lovers past / My brother used to call it ‘Eating out of the trash’’ – before celebrating a love that delivered her from a perilous existence.
After establishing its vision for Swift’s future, ‘Showgirl’ then pivots to the past – to settle old accounts, revisit complex memories, and critique the glamorous lifestyle often imposed on stars. While the album’s opening is a comforting embrace, its remainder is a deliberate shedding of old skins.
The confrontation with her detractors commences with ‘Father Figure,’ a remarkably upbeat yet resolute takedown of an individual—speculated to be Scott Borchetta, her former label head who initially sold her master recordings—who sought to wield influence and experience against her. Instead, Swift masterfully flips the script, delivering the lines with cool confidence, like an assassin proudly claiming victory. The track’s homage to George Michael, acknowledged as a writer, is more a rhythmic suggestion than a direct reference.
‘Actually Romantic’ might serve as a subtle retort to Charli XCX’s alleged criticism of Swift in ‘Sympathy Is a Knife’ (or perhaps, given the guitar’s raw edge, a veiled reference to Olivia Rodrigo). Even ‘Honey,’ the album’s sweetest track—an upbeat echo of her tender love song ‘New Year’s Day’—diverts its attention to those who once used affectionate terms as weapons, contrasting them with the trusted individual who now offers genuine embrace.
When considering her musical legacy, Swift clearly signals her affiliations with the album’s sole guest, Sabrina Carpenter. Carpenter provides a country-tinged empathy on the title track, oscillating between celebrating and regretting the way the spotlight forces artists to become more resilient versions of themselves. Despite being the central image of the album’s promotion, the song feels almost like an unessential addition at the album’s conclusion.
Yet, this track aligns with much of ‘Showgirl,’ where celebrity itself is portrayed as the antagonist. The contemplative ‘Eldest Daughter’ is an ironic ode to online indifference. ‘I’m not a bad bitch,’ Swift declares in the chorus, delivering one of her most compelling vocal performances on the album. This newfound liberty to embrace simplicity also infuses ‘Wish List,’ the album’s most overtly pop track, softly sung over shimmering synthesizers.
The only misstep is the forceful, brooding ‘Cancelled!,’ where Swift aligns herself with public figures deemed villains, asserting: ‘At least you know exactly who your friends are / They’re the ones with matching scars.’ This echoes a more victim-oriented Swift from the 2010s, an era when she frequently explored the conflict between the actualities of fame and its public perception. Within this album’s narrative, however, the song feels overly dramatic and like an outdated lament.
‘Showgirl’ doesn’t represent a drastic shift akin to her bold albums like ‘Red’ or ‘Reputation,’ which daringly broadened her musical scope. Thematically, it bears the most resemblance to ‘Reputation,’ yet her collaborators here refrain from excessive production, allowing her intricate songwriting to truly shine. The album also functions as a mini-Eras Tour: ‘Cancelled!’ echoes a ‘Reputation’-era track, while ‘Ruin the Friendship,’ detailing a forgotten teenage bond, evokes the innocence of ‘Fearless.’ In this regard, ‘Showgirl’ offers a more coherent and purposeful narrative than her previous two, ‘Midnights’ and ‘The Tortured Poets Department,’ which felt somewhat sprawling and unfocused.
This newfound stability and the resolution of Swift’s past grievances could very well pave the way for a more grounded album in the future. She appears to yearn for such a state on ‘Wish List,’ singing, ‘We tell the world to leave us the alone, and they do.’ While ‘Showgirl’ offers glimpses of what a Taylor Swift album centered purely on requited love might entail, for the moment, she hasn’t quite shed her appetite for settling scores.