Taylor Swift, global pop superstar, had her twelfth studio album, “The Life of A Showgirl” (or TLOASG for short) come out on October 3rd, 2025. The album followed Swift’s “Eras Tour”, which was the highest grossing tour in history, making Swift the richest pop star in the world, with an estimated net worth of 2.1 billion (yes, billion with a B). This album also comes off the heels of her recent engagement to NFL Chiefs player Travis Kelce. Prior to release, TLOASG promised a backstage look at what the Eras Tour was like, as well as the experience of a “showgirl” and how these experiences shaped Swift’s life while navigating a new relationship. The album has sold over 3.5 million albums in the first week, but has been not very well received online and by music critics who are not in affiliation with Swift or her team (I’m looking at you, Rolling Stones Magazine) But while this album has achieved commercial success, there are many controversies overshadowing it, such as accusations of poorly-crafted lyrics, digs at other artists, and inorganic chart-topping strategies. Regardless of the controversy, how does the album hold up from a musical perspective?
The album was produced by Swedish pop producing legends, Max Martin and Shellback. Max Martin is behind giant pop hits like Ariana Grande’s God Is A Woman and Katy Perry’s California Girls, as well as Taylor Swift’s earlier hits like 22 and Blank Space, while Shellback is responsible for some of Britney Spears’ early hits and has collaborated with Max Martin for many pop hits of the 2010s. The announcement that these producers were working on the album was exciting for many as they produced a lot of Swift’s more glittery-pop hits. This, coupled with the fact that many fans and critics were beginning to get sick of Jack Antonoff’s influence on the majority of Swift’s projects, made the album highly anticipated. The production in the album isn’t explicitly bad or unlistenable, but it was somewhat disappointing. I’d expected more from these pop giants, considering they’d achieved monumental feats in the world of pop, and yet, none of the songs on The Life of a Showgirl feels like a pop hit. Fans and critics alike have been quick to point out many of the similarities between tracks on TLOASG, the most popular example being between the guitar in the Jackson Five’s I Want You Back and Wood, which do sound suspiciously similar. Other connections have been made, like the title track comparing to the Jonas Brothers’ Cool, and Actually Romantic to The Pixies’ smash hit Where Is My Mind?. None of the production is very outstanding, and some of the tracks feel out of place, like the pop-rock influence in Actually Romantic and The Life Of A Showgirl’s theatricality. I believe that the production is most interesting on Wi$h Li$t, which features a glittery synth track which somewhat imitates the production on Swift’s Midnights. Elizabeth Taylor is also a semi-interesting track, combining strings in the first verse and bridge, with intense drums coming in and taking over during the chorus. Overall, nothing sticks out too much, even the two tracks I previously mentioned, as they still fit into the category of generic pop production. I would give the production a 3/5, nothing too offensive, but nothing revolutionary.
Taylor Swift has long been regarded as one of the premier lyricists of the modern era through her lyrics mostly coming from Folklore and Evermore, and, to some extent, The Tortured Poets Department. TLOASG, unfortunately, does not hold up to those albums whatsoever. The majority of Swift’s most egregious songwriting on this album I am unable to discuss, but if you’re on the internet in any capacity, you’ve definitely heard some of them. Some of the worst offenders that I’m able to discuss are as follows; “I have been afflicted by a terminal uniqueness”-Eldest Daughter, “So we all dressed up as wolves and looked fire”-Eldest Daughter, “Like a toy chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse”-Actually Romantic. The single most appalling line in the entire album (that I can talk about!) is, unfortunately, “Did you girlboss too close to the sun?”, from the song CANCELLED!. Clearly, these lyrics don’t hold a candle to some of her previous writing, and they give Swift the appearance of being hyper-online. The tracks also disregard the number one rule of writing; show, don’t tell. Swift is telling us about her relationship with Kelce, with her “cancelled” friends, with other artists, but she isn’t showing us. Also, the album’s entire premise, based off of its advertising, was to be a behind-the-scenes look at what it meant and how it felt to be on the world’s largest stages performing the highest grossing tour in the history of mankind, or, in other words, what it means to be a showgirl, and it did not deliver. On the one track in which the tour is loosely mentioned, the title track, the song is primarily about a real-life showgirl named Kitty before Swift describes, very briefly, her time on the Eras tour. This track was lyrically disappointing in more ways than one, like how Swift rhymes Kitty, pretty, witty and city in the first 20 seconds of the song, but what might have been the most surprising was how Sabrina Carpenter, who is featured on the track, somewhat outshines Swift. Overall, Swift’s lyricism in the album is highly disappointing, and I believe that to be because she is now somewhat out of touch from reality. She’s now a billionaire with millions of fans, engaged to a pro NFL player and is one of the most successful people in music ever, and so it’s hard to imagine she’s surrounded by anything but yes men. Having an editor or two in the room wouldn’t hurt, you know? I give the lyricism on this album a ⅕, mostly due to the mention of girlbossing too close to the sun.
The main controversies of the album fall into two categories; the alleged diss track on Charli XCX, singer and songwriter of last year’s critically acclaimed, smash hit album “BRAT”, and the strategies Swift allegedly employs to top the charts. Starting with the supposed diss track, Actually Romantic, Swift seems to be replying to XCX’s song Sympathy is a Knife from the BRAT album. To be clear, Sympathy is a Knife was not explicitly about Swift, but the song is about XCX’s insecurities and vulnerabilities while sharing the same space as a pop star who has achieved insane commercial success. The song appears to be about Swift as there are mentions of being backstage as XCX’s boyfriend’s show, and the song was written when both Swift and XCX were dating members of The 1975. The song is more about XCX’s insecurities as a pop star and in her career more than anything else, but there is a line about wanting Swift (allegedly) and her boyfriend to break up. Swift’s response with Actually Romantic is, in all honesty, somewhat pathetic. She’s essentially punching down at XCX, who is a much smaller artist, for a perceived slight in one line of a song, and compares her to a toy chihuahua. Even if a response was warranted from Swift, the track is childish and strangely written. Swift’s strategies for chart-topping albums have also come into question recently as well. At the time of writing this article, Swift has released 32 different variants of her singular, twelve track album, 27 of those variants being physical. There were 24 variants being sold before the album was released. The only difference between these variants is some have an extra voice memo or an acoustic version of a song. The issue is, you would have to buy every single variant to have access to every voice memo or acoustic version unless you stream it illegally online. Swift knows her fans will empty their wallets for her, and she’s using this to be able to sell millions of copies of her album, even before release (and without singles!). However, what this also does is allow Swift to take hold of the charts easily, as fans buy more than one version of each album. By this point, however, she’s notorious for this tactic, and it seems to be working out for her quite well considering her commercial success. Both of these controversies are nothing very significant or new for Swift, as every one of her albums now comes with a week long internet debate on whether or not Swift is a talented artist, whether she deserves her fame, whether whatever album she releases is going to be a generational classic or hopefully soon forgotten. For this album, I hope it’s the latter.
The Life of a Showgirl was, ultimately, a disappointment. For the amount of promotion, visuals, talk shows and podcasts Swift has put out for the album, it really lacks in every department. The writing, the production, even the subject matter are all across the map and fail to create a cohesive, creative, interesting piece of art. I hope Swift can learn from the criticism she’s been receiving online and release a more interesting project next time, but with the way this album has sold, she could release an hour of banging pots and pans together and still sell millions upon millions of albums, so I doubt she’ll take any criticism to heart. The numbers sometimes do lie. Mine, however, don’t. I give this album an overall 2/5 personally, but I highly doubt my rating is going to make Swift think twice about releasing another mediocre-pop album. Here’s to hoping number 13 will be better.
