Taylor Swift’s latest release, The Life of a Showgirl, arrived with a kind of spectacle few artists could pull off. Between an exclusive weekend-only theatrical film and a full press tour across talk shows and podcasts, Swift put herself front and center more than she has in years. The rollout promised a bold, new era — one drenched in glitz, performance, self-reflection, and behind the scenes of The Eras Tour. But when the album finally dropped, fans were surprised to find something different. Rather than reinventing her sound, Swift seems to have stitched together pieces of her past eleven albums, blending eras and emotions into one sprawling collection. It’s a mosaic of everything she’s done before but not exactly the fresh, show-stopping production her promotion suggested. The contrast between the cinematic marketing and the subdued tone of the music has left many listeners, including ourselves, confused.
The first time we listened, we were left with nothing but a furrowed brow the whole time. Sometimes it was from skepticism, other times from cringing, and sometimes because at certain points she has never sounded better. There is such a stark contrast between the powerful production and lyricism on some songs, and the half-baked, weak, lazy, millennial moments on others.
This record begs many questions — was this the best thing she could have made following the “Eras Tour?” Is this an early draft that had a 6-month turnaround? Could a little more time have improved this album? Most importantly, however, who wrote this?
Swift’s fifth track of each album is famously the most vulnerable and emotional song off of the tracklist, and this time around, “Eldest Daughter” was chosen. There is not much criticism to offer that hasn’t already been expressed on the internet, but we definitely had to mention that “Every eldest daughter was the first lamb to the slaughter so we all dressed up as wolves and we looked fire” is a real lyric in the second verse of this song. Sigh.
It’s unfortunate that the low moments of this LP completely overshadowed the career highlight tracks and tarnished the legacy of them just because they’re on this album. Songs like “The Fate of Ophelia”, “Opalite”, and “Father Figure” show some of Swift’s best writing in years and others like “Wi$h Li$t” and “Honey” are sweet and sentimental love songs that had potential to be timeless. However, after listening to “CANCELLED!,” we fear Swift may have “girl-bossed too close to the sun” this time.