Life Behind The Curtain: The Life of a Showgirl Review

Joey Gilbertson
Oct 10
11 min read

Photo taken by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggot

Introduction

Over time, Taylor Swift has continued to prove herself as a force to be reckoned with in the music industry. She's come so far since she first started her career in 2006, and she's been through so much as a result of her success. It makes you wonder- what's it like to be the biggest pop-star alive? What happens when the curtain draws? Taylor Swifts 12th album "The Life of a Showgirl" promised to answer these questions. Announced in August of this year, this album had both fans and haters eager to see what the so-called showgirl had to say. The beginning of this era was actually kind of bizarre- it was kick-started after Taylor Nation (her official fan account) had made a post alluding to a new era being on the horizon. Not long after, Taylor appeared on the New Heights podcast with her now-fiancé Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce to announce her twelfth album. I still can't believe we live in a reality where Taylor announced her highly anticipated album on a football podcast, but I guess weirder things have happened. Before the release, she gave a couple of tidbits as to what this album would be like. She mentioned that this album was written while she was in the middle of "The Eras Tour", and that it would give us a peek into what her life was like while headlining one of the biggest tours of all the time. She also hinted it would be a departure from her recent albums, as this album was produced by both Max Martin and Shellback, which were collaborators on "Red", "1989", and , "reputation". Most people were happy to hear this, as it signaled a true return to form for Taylor. Her last two albums, "Midnights" and "The Tortured Poets Department", were often critiqued for being boring in terms of sound, as both albums went for a synth-pop sound that felt too samesy in the end. Putting all of that aside, many were excited and hopeful to see what this album would bring to the table. And with Taylor singing endless praises about the quality of this record, it's safe to say I was excited to press play on this new album.

Tracklist:

The Fate of Ophelia
Elizabeth Taylor
Opalite
Father Figure
Eldest Daughter
Ruin The Friendship
Actually Romantic
Wi$h Li$t
Wood
CANCELLED!
Honey
The Life of a Showgirl (feat. Sabrina Carpenter)

First Impressions

As expected, Taylor has already broken all kinds of new records with the release of this album. It's kind of par for the course at this point. But numbers and data don't tell the full story. So- what did the general public think about this new record? It's a mixed bag to say the least. A lot of the conversation happening online is about the writing, in particular. Taylor's songwriting can be so genuine and direct, for better or for worse. While this writing style has led to some of the most influential songs of our generation, it's also responsible for some very... interesting lyrics. Taylor's bluntness and seriousness when writing songs makes it very hard to give her the benefit of the doubt, leaving little room for sarcasm or irony. This aspect of her writing is unfortunately very relevant to some of the songs on this record, but I'll get to that later. As for my first impressions, I felt very mixed about this album after listening to it for the first time. I remember thinking that it was a little more tame than I initially thought it would be. Like I said before, people were expecting something similar to "1989" or "reputation", but that simply didn't happen. While there were definitely moments that felt reminiscent of these older projects, it was definitely more of a departure than I thought it would be, which made me feel like I was in uncharted territory when listening. While that's not a bad thing, it just goes to show that a change in expectation can really have an effect on an albums initial perception.

The Sound of a New Era

Let's dig deeper into the production of this album. Like I was just saying, many were left confused by the different direction this albums production went in. Despite that, I wouldn't say that the production hinders the album at all. I actually think it's quite new and refreshing. Compared to her older pop records, it's definitely going into a different direction, for sure. But it's not so far off from what she's done before to where it feels alien. Even with that in mind, it still manages to stand it's own ground in a discography that ranges many different genres. An aspect that I really appreciated were live instruments being mixed in with electronic elements. This is something that I felt was really missing from the pop releases we've seen in the last few years. I was growing tired of the oversaturation of derivative 80's pop and electronic music. I wanted to hear guitars and other instruments in pop music again. This production style does a good job of making this album sound more fresh and helps give it some depth. In the same vein, this doesn't necessarily mean that this albums production is the first of it's kind. Don't get it twisted- it's all pretty simple and doesn't do anything too innovative. I wish they had played around more with the showgirl theme in the production. Maybe some more over-the-top dramatic moments? They only really visit this idea in the title track, and it's such a shame that they didn't explore further past that, since it works very well in that song. There was a lot more potential for them to really make some of these songs stick out. Regardless, the production is pretty good overall and is relatively inoffensive.

We Don't Know the Life of a Showgirl

I just talked about how the showgirl theme was missing from the production of these songs, but what if I told you that was a common issue throughout the album? Not only is it lacking in the production, but the theme of the album goes largely unnoticed as a whole. For an album called "The Life of a Showgirl", we really don't hear a whole lot about.. well... the life of a showgirl. This album does a good job of bringing up a whole bunch of new ideas that make it an interesting listen, but it sometimes fails to capture the key theme of the album in the process. Songs like "Opalite" or "The Fate of Ophelia" are good at being catchy love songs, but don't give us any insight into what it's like to be a showgirl. That's not a statement on the quality of these songs, there's still a lot of good to be found in them. But at times, I fail to see how these songs provide any deeper insight into Taylor Swift's life. Especially after that comment she made about this being a behind-the-scenes look of her life during "The Eras Tour", I felt a little jipped after realizing we were mostly only getting more information about her relationship with Travis Kelce. You could argue that her relationship actually was her main concern throughout the tour, and that's why it's the main event on this album. But I was hoping for a little bit more than that. "I Can Do It With A Broken Heart" from her last album is what everyone points to when it comes to what was expected from this album. You could even say that "The Tortured Poets Department" actually does a better job at showing us the life of a showgirl than this new album. You can see where they tried to integrate the showgirl theme here and there, for example "Elizabeth Taylor", "Father Figure", and the title track. You could make the case that some songs have a behind-the-scenes aspect, such as "Actually Romantic", or "Ruin The Friendship", but there's no explicit link that makes these songs inextricable from the showgirl theme. That's one of the key issues I have with this record; the smaller moments don't contribute as much to the overall theme because most of the songs don't have anything to do with the showgirl theme to begin with.

Thoughtful Pop?

I hate to pile on, but while we are talking about some of the flaws with this album, lets get into the writing of some of these tracks. As I said before, many found some of these songs jarring and even straight-up cringe. A song that is getting mercilessly bullied on TikTok is "CANCELLED!", which really didn't succeed in what it set out to do. I talked earlier about how Taylor can take her writing too seriously at times, and this is a prime example of that. I can see where she was going with this song, and the idea of it actually pretty interesting. Taylor has made it very well-known that she's been victim to some crazy smearing campaigns that aimed to take down her career. She's made quite a few songs about it at this point, and the well was starting to run dry. This song offers a new perspective of how she avoids public scrutiny despite having all eyes on her. This all sounds cool in theory, but in execution... well. It comes off very millennial-core. It's not a terrible song or anything, but whenever I finally start to get into the song, I'm hit over the head with a lyric that just makes me go "why..?". This isn't the only example of this either. "Wood" is truly a baffling song that makes me feel physically ill to listen to. I'm not going to get too deep into this one- iykyk. But it kinda sounds like Taylor wanted to have a Sabrina moment and wasn't able to capture the same magic.

"Eldest Daughter" was another disappointing listen. If you are caught up on the TS lore, you know that the 5th track on every album is usually home to an emotional gut-punch. "Eldest Daughter" is your typical pop-ballad affair- a piano and guitar that slowly ramps up as it goes along. The issue here are the bizarre lyrics and disjointed writing. I'm sorry, but when I hear "trolling and memes" in what's supposed to be a heartfelt ballad, I can't help but get immediately taken out of it. And when the main hook of the song is "But I'm not a bad b*tch, and this isn't savage", it kind of feels like you're getting pranked. The song also struggled to make a point. It starts out with Taylor talking about how hard it can be to deal with haters online, and the struggle of trying to appear cool when you know that isn't the real you. Okay, that's a promising start. Then she starts talking about when she was a child and she broke her arm. Okay... Then she starts talking about how long she's looked for the right person her whole life, and how she wishes things could be as simple as they were when she was young. Uh... Then we are back to the chorus saying "I'm not a bad b*tch, and this isn't savage". Do you see the point I'm trying to make? What is this song trying to accomplish? It's trying to be too many things at once. While there are a lot of moments that could have been interesting if explored further, those ideas get axed as soon as they start getting anywhere. This song feels like it only exists so it could be the track-five everyone was hoping for. But at this point, I think there are other songs on this record that could have served as a better track five. Or- maybe it's time to stop putting pressure on the fifth track altogether. I mean, look where that got us.

Glittering Moments

I've spoken a lot so far about this albums flaws. Based on what you've read up until now, you would probably assume I really hate this record. But you've only gotten half of the story up until now. I've mentioned a few times that some of the ideas presented in these new songs are actually really interesting. "Father Figure" creates a simple yet effective metaphor for her relationship with her long-time collaborator Scott Borchetta, who was responsible for selling all of Taylor's master recordings to Scooter Braun. If you didn't know, this is why she started the Taylor's Version project. The way she flips the perspective in this song is pretty seamless too, and leaves a lot of room for interpretation. It's the perfect revenge story, now she's surpassed all of the people who have done her wrong and doesn't need anyone else to protect her legacy but herself. While this isn't the first time she's played around with this idea, it brings a perspective that is different enough to make it interesting.

Another example of this is "Ruin The Friendship". At first, I thought this was gonna be another fake high-school scenario, since Taylor is known for that kind of thing. I was a little worried, since she's over 30 years old at this point and I was starting to think that it was time to drop the highschooler act. In actuality, this song is literally about a crush that Taylor had on a friend in high school. After they went down their own paths, her old friend from high school had tragically passed away. Because of this, she ponders about what might have happened if she simply told him how she felt. It's a very bittersweet moment on the record. Its a very valuable lesson too- shoot your shot so you won't be haunted by 'what-ifs' for the rest of your life. Unrelated to that, it's also just a very catchy song in general, which I can always appreciate. The last track I wanted to bring attention to was the title track- "The Life of a Showgirl". She kind of creates this fake scenario where she's speaking to a showgirl after a performance, and she's told that she's not ready for the showgirl life. The song kind of plays as a story, with the final chorus being a full circle moment. The reason I bring this song up is because it's the only song that successfully captures the showgirl aesthetic, and it does a really good job at it too. The musical theater elements in the bridge are a nice touch and it's different from anything Taylor's done before in her music. Overall, this song did a good job at ending the album on a high note.

Final Thoughts

This is probably the most unclear I've ever been in a review. This album has a lot of twists and turns that make it very hard to speak definitively about the project as a whole. Despite how polarizing this album can get, there are so many good moments hiding throughout it. A lot of songs are just flat-out enjoyable to listen to, even if they aren't super deep or have anything new to say. For example, songs like "Elizabeth Taylor", "Opalite", and "Honey" are very simple yet satisfying to listen to. It can be very easy to write this album off as sub-par due to all of the hate it's been getting online. I actually found myself enjoying this album a good amount after I stopped listening to bad-faith criticism. Don't let someone tell you how to feel about this record. If you enjoy it, then you enjoy it. And even if you hate it, that's fine too. I don't think there will ever be a time where I call this the best Taylor Swift album, but I don't think it sits at the bottom of my ranking either. Sometimes things just need time to marinate, and this is definitely one of those cases. With that, I think I've said my peace about this album. If you've read all the way to the end, thank you for listening to what I have to say, it means a lot!! Below is my overall ranking and summary for the album. As always, thanks for reading!

"The Life of a Showgirl" by Taylor Swift

Song Ratings:

(5/10 being average)

The Fate of Ophelia: 8/10
Elizabeth Taylor: 8.5/10
Opalite: 8/10
Father Figure: 9/10
Eldest Daughter: 3.5/10
Ruin The Friendship: 9/10
Actually Romantic: 8.5/10
Wi$h Li$t: 6/10
Wood: 2/10
CANCELLED!: 5/10
Honey: 8/10
The Life of a Showgirl (feat. Sabrina Carpenter): 9/10

Overall Rating: 7.5/10

TLDR;

"The Life of a Showgirl" tries to give us a glimpse into the life of Taylor Swift when she steps out of the spotlight. While the album makes an attempt to deliver that, it struggles to paint a complete picture of this core theme. There are several moments throughout the record where Swift's lyricism is out-of-touch with what is expected from her songwriting, leading to some baffling moments. In contrast, Swift explores many different ideas throughout this record that give listeners a new perspective to explore. In addition, the production and sound feels both infectious and vibrant, thanks to the variety of instrumentation and catchy verses that are bound to get stuck in your head. While this might be her most polarizing project to date, this album is still cohesive enough to be enjoyed by most.

Earworm ~-~-~o

Thanks for reading!

-Joey :)