We’ve all heard it. Some of us have shouted it from the rooftops, others have had to endure the shouting, but we’ve all heard it: Taylor Allison Swift dropped a new album.
The Life Of A Showgirl was announced on August 13, an album promising glitz and glam and that damn orange color we’ve all been clowning about. (For non-Swifties, “clowning” is a term used when we try to decode the things Taylor is trying to tell us. We’re delusional 90% of the time.) Reviews from the general public were mixed, but that’s irrelevant. For the next 900 or so words, I control the narrative and my opinion is the only one that matters.
So what’s my opinion? I’m so glad you asked.
Taylor Swift has finally stopped giving a f*ck, and I could not be happier. Anybody who’s ever had to deal with people trying to control them or scrutinizing them until they break knows what it feels like to just stop caring. Here, Swift has reached her breaking point. She says it herself in “Elizabeth Taylor”: “they say I’m bad news, I just say thanks.”
This album is the complete opposite to her previous work, The Tortured Poets Department. Instead of lamenting on lovers past and singing about how she wishes she were dead, she’s chosen to sing about how deeply in love she is and *checks notes* her fiancé’s “wood.”
Wow. Good for you, Taylor.
Of course, I also made the mistake of opening TikTok within the first 24 hours of the album being out, and TikTok had opinions. I saw videos and comments saying Taylor fell off and dumbed her writing down. Wow, OK, I guess we hate fun now. Personally, I loved the album at first listen, and every time I listen to it again, I catch something I didn’t before.
Now that I’ve sat with TLOAS for about two weeks, I’ve narrowed down my favorite songs. (For now.)
#3: “Actually Romantic”
Coming in at a respectable third place, “Actually Romantic” nails down exactly what it feels like to have somebody obsessed with you, and not in a good way. On my first listen, I thought the song was about someone loving you, and I wasn’t impressed. Gotta love that post breakup energy…. Anyways, upon further inspection, “Actually Romantic” is actually a diss track about the girl who dates your ex being an unhealthy level of obsessed with you.
We’ve all been there, and I gotta say, that kind of love is unrivaled. As Taylor sings: “No man has ever loved me like you do.” Ain’t that the truth?
There’s a running conspiracy that the song is about Charli XCX and Matty Healy’s friendship. Which… yikes. Swift was with Healy for, like, two seconds. Give it a break.
#2: “Opalite”
Any nod to Taylor Swift’s mom is a winner in my heart because I too love my mom. (Hi Mom!) In “Opalite,” Taylor writes: “But my Mama told me/It’s alright/You were dancing through the lighting strikes.”
I really needed to hear that, because I’m very much the kind of person to take things personally and spend an ungodly amount of time brewing with my thoughts. Maybe I’ll think about learning a new skill, like dancing through the bad times, or dancing through the lighting strikes until my sky is opalite.
Also, can we talk about this iconic lyric? “I had a bad habit of missing lovers past/my brother used to call it eating out of the trash.” Honestly, I wouldn’t be shocked to hear my own brother or sister use a phrase similar to that.
Overall, Opalite reminded me of how my mama didn’t raise no fool, and that it’s OK to groove my way through the bad days. So if y’all see me dancing my way through campus… mind your damn business.
#1: “Eldest Daughter”
This is a song for all the girls who figured out how to take care of themselves before they were even in the double digits of age. “Eldest Daughter” doesn’t strictly refer to the eldest; it’s for all the daughters who took care of those around them. The ones that had to toughen up even when they didn’t want to. The ones who would feel like they failed if they let anyone down.
I don’t know about the general population, but I felt the “Eldest Daughter” bridge in my soul. Taylor is making sure people know that she can still be sad. Which is pretty beautiful, right?
Something about this song releasing while I’m farther away from my family for longer than I’ve ever been, the first kid to move out of the state, and figuring it out all on my own was, in my opinion, poetic.
All in all, I love The Life Of A Showgirl. It’s an excellent contrast to Taylor’s previous heartbreaking, devastating albums. Taylor spent so long being tolerated instead of celebrated, and she’s finally having some good old fashioned fun. It’s a good message to the world that we can be at our worst, and then shortly thereafter be dancing the pain away.
TLOAS shows Taylor channeling her inner Janice from Mean Girls, raising her right finger and solemnly swearing that whatever they say about her, she doesn’t care. Which makes sense, since the album was released on October 3. If you know, you know.
[Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect chapter guidelines.]