By Andrew Hutchinson · Staff Writer
Through her Eras Tour, Taylor Swift has made it clear she is the ultimate American showgirl. However, a successful artist cannot rely on reputation or past successes, but must continue creating, and to a certain extent, must keep fans appeased. With her 12th studio album, Taylor Swift tries to recreate the happier pop albums of her past that fueled the Eras Tour, the most commercially successful tour in history.
Some of her popularity cooled after the apathetic response to “The Tortured Poets Department” and its lack of memorable writing. “The Life of a Showgirl” has a mixed relationship with fans and listeners thus far, but this new release is a good, if flawed, album.
This marks Swift’s first album since 2014’s “1989” not produced by Jack Antonoff, with Max Martin returning to the helm. Despite this change, the production, choice of instrumentation and general sound create the same vintage-pop atmosphere of Antonoff’s recent release “Man’s Best Friend.” Tracks like “Actually Romantic,” “Wood” and the Sabrina Carpenter feature “The Life of a Showgirl” could easily sit beside Carpenter’s recent work. Despite this, all 12 tracks can be linked in sound to other “eras” of Swift’s music. The guitar in “Wood” recalls “1989,” “CANCELLED!” channels “Reputation” and “Midnights,” “Eldest Daughter” echoes the introspective tone of “Folklore” and “Wi$h Li$t” could seamlessly integrate into “Lover.”
While many critics have bashed the album for its lack of creativity, I found enough interest to justify adding a handful to my personal playlists, despite none of the tracks having the instant-hook brilliance of “Shake It Off” or “Cruel Summer.” It generally presents like an amalgamation of all her previous sounds and writing in a presentation like “Midnights,” fitting the tone Taylor curated in the lead-up to the album’s release.
However, it would be remiss to not cover the lyrical element of the album. Unlike the “Red” and “1989” albums that Swift claimed some similarity to, the profanity remains on par with “The Tortured Poets Department” or “Midnights,” with a decent amount of strong profanity. More perplexing and frankly disappointing is the innuendo that Swift includes in a few of the songs, most prominently in “Father Figure” and “Wood.” This has not been a prominent part of Swift’s other writing and aligns more with Sabrina Carpenter’s explicit metaphors. Furthermore, Swifties from the “Folklore” era may be disappointed by the lack of philosophic depth in the writing, as “The Life of a Showgirl” has far simpler language. This isn’t an innate problem, as grandiloquence is antithetical to pop songs, as proven by how “The Tortured Poets Department” struggled to include catchy tunes. The writing in “Elizabeth Taylor” and “Eldest Daughter” is still more profound than that of typical popular music and even shows more depth than Swift’s other pop albums. Collectively, the writing has some issues, especially for discerning listeners, but it is successful in writing memorable choruses and bridges and maintaining a good deal of the depth included in modern Taylor Swift albums.
Naturally, there is an infinite amount of speculation regarding hidden meanings for the different tracks, from the perceived feuding with Charli XCX in “Actually Romantic” to whether “CANCELLED!” was written about Brittney Mahomes or Blake Lively. What is clear is that Swift is devoted to her fiancé Travis Kelce in a way she has not been with her previous lovers. She mentions a change of mind on the topic of marriage and wanting to potentially settle down and become a mother. This is an immense change of intent for the artist and certainly impacts the sound and writing of the album. Whatever future music Swift chooses to release will inevitably be a radical departure of subject matter, and a joyful side of Swift will be more visible.
While the magic of the multi-platinum albums of her past may not have been captured in “The Life of a Showgirl,” both in sound and writing, it will undoubtedly have great success. The showgirl has opened the curtain to her life, and the glitter hides most of the cracks in the window. .
