The first thing my friends and I did after listening to The Life of a Showgirl (TLOASG) was put on Taylor Swift’s “peace.” We needed to remind ourselves of the Taylor Swift we’d always known, and see if we were crazy for thinking that the one who wrote this album seemed… different.
Over the past few months, the more I’ve listened to TLOASG, the more I’ve been sure that it’s a flop for me, which leaves me incredibly disappointed. As a longtime Swiftie, I’ve come to hold Swift’s music to a certain standard, or at least expect a certain quality from it, and this definitely didn’t deliver.
Problems with the writing
If there’s one thing Swift is known for, it’s her songwriting. Whether it’s weaving together countrified love stories, living out her dreams behind a pop beat, or even painting vivid indie pictures, she’s always been a songwriter and lyricist first. So, what happens when her songwriting fails her? We get an album chock-full of tacky luxury brand name drops and cringey one-liners that are five years too late.
The lyrics feel flat and hollow; a far cry from the lush imagery she used to grace us with. Where we used to have “You made a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter,” we now have “I like ‘em cloaked in Gucci and in scandal,” and “Did you girlboss too close to the sun?” An artist who used to joke that you needed a thesaurus to listen to her songs now uses words like “legitly,” and weighs her lyrics down with Dr. Seuss-esque rhymes.
The thing is, it’s not like Swift hasn’t used her fair share of cringier lyrics in the past — anyone remember “But I come back stronger than a ’90s trend?” However, the difference here lies both in the quality of the songs and the timeliness of the lyrics.
When a great song has one or two cheesy lyrics, they’re easy to overlook, but when a mediocre song has three or more, they become all you can hear. Furthermore, the cheesy lyrics on TLOASG are more centered around modern-day internet slang terms, which not only makes them cringey but also dated and less likely to age well.
It’s easy to say that this is the result of fans expecting too much from Swift’s songwriting. That her switch from the more poetic writing style we’ve come to expect after albums like folklore, evermore, and The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD) to a less serious style is a positive. However, there’s a difference between a fun, catchy, silly pop song — think “Shake it Off” — and whatever is happening here.
Fun music is essential to pop, but these songs just completely miss the mark, and instead move from fun and unserious to downright embarrassing. Something else I find important to mention is that Swift was lauded as a songwriter long before she dubbed herself a serious, almost Shakespearean writer.
Her less poetic, more pop-forward albums, like Red, 1989, and reputation, all contain lyricism that’s leagues better than what we’re getting on this album. There are even songs on her debut album that she wrote when she was 12 and 13 years old that hold more depth than these.
Problems with the theme
Something that sets Swift apart from her pop girl counterparts is her background in country music, a genre that’s often associated with storytelling. Even after her switch from country to pop music, she’s kept that storytelling aspect in her songs, giving them a richer feel and allowing her to write music that has depth and meaning, as well as catchy lyrics.
Every album of hers has an “era” associated with it: a musical and stylistic aesthetic built around the album, often associated with different colors, images, and themes. In terms of TLOASG, the era is centered around a burlesque-inspired image, with lots of glitter, rhinestones, sequins, and feathers.
The difference between this era’s aesthetic and the aesthetics of eras past is that her past eras have felt much more cohesive. The aesthetic of past eras felt fully formed, and the lyrics and overall sound of the albums matched up well — for example, the sweet, sparkly fairytale that was Fearless, or the dark and gritty reputation. However, while the visual aesthetic of this era is stunning, it doesn’t match up well with any of the songs on the album, or any of the overarching themes Swift had discussed beforehand, for that matter.
This album was sold as a look at life behind the curtain for one of the biggest pop stars of all time while embarking on one of the biggest tours of all time. Don’t get me wrong, in some ways, it delivered… just not in the ways it could have.
One of the primary influences of this album is Swift’s then-budding relationship with Travis Kelce, and while I’ll never be one to say “she only writes about her boyfriends,” I think this album had the potential to be about so much more alongside that.
Swift is currently the biggest artist on Earth, and because of that, it’s almost like she’s living a completely singular experience. There are very few people who know what it’s like to be Taylor Swift, and this gives her the perfect opportunity to examine that and what it feels like. What happens when you pull back the curtain? When the show is over, and the rhinestoned bodysuit is taken off? What emotions does she feel?
We could’ve gotten a meditation on fame, and what it’s like to always be “on” and performing while working almost nonstop; or even what it’s like to grapple with the separation of her as a person versus her as a brand. She begins to explore these ideas briefly in “Elizabeth Taylor,” but when taking into account the aesthetic of the album along with the themes behind the other songs, there isn’t nearly enough meditation on these ideas.
In my opinion, songs like “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” off of TTPD fit the concept of this era better than songs like “Ruin the Friendship,” which felt clunky and out of place on the album.
To sum it all up
As of right now, Swift feels… stagnant. Is this album the worst thing I’ve ever heard? No. However, having the knowledge that she’s capable of so much more is what makes this so disappointing. There’s no more hunger for fame, there’s nothing left to prove, and as a result, there’s no traveling outside of her comfort zone and getting creative either.
I’m not saying the old Taylor has to come back — after all, we all know why she’s gone — but I think there needs to be a revisiting of what made her love songwriting in the first place, and a reconnection with that part of herself.
Want to see more HCFSU? Be sure to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest!