‘The Life of a Showgirl’: All Smoke and Mirrors

Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” promised glitz, glamour, theatricality and a lyrical encore. These promises were quickly dispelled upon the album’s Oct. 3 release.

Swift, known for her masterful lyricism that blends poetic language with skillful storytelling, did not deliver this time around. From lyrics like “did you girl-boss too close to the sun” to “every joke’s just trolling in memes,” Swift incorporated Gen-Z “lingo” awkwardly and without taste. While having no depth, these lyrics will also ultimately date the album in years to come, a writing failure on Swift and her producers’ part.

Track No. 9 features far too many references to Travis Kelce’s “Wood.” Swift sings, “Forgive me, it sounds cocky / He (ah!) matized me / and opened my eyes / Redwood tree / It ain’t hard to see / His love was the key / That opened my thighs.” That, alongside phrases like “hard rock,” “magic wand” and “new heights of manhood” really drive the point home. Taylor, we get it.

Pop stars like Sabrina Carpenter have popularized these cheeky, sexual innuendos in recent years. Coming out of Swift’s mouth, however, they feel uncomfortable and off-brand.

While Swift praises her fiancé, she seems to have made an indirect attack at fellow pop artist Charli xcx. “Actually Romantic” appears to be a response to Charli xcx’s “Sympathy is a knife,” a song about Charli’s insecurities in regard to the music industry.

Online speculation has tied the song to Swift and Charli’s feelings toward her, specifically. In her response song, Swift paints Charli as an obsessed lover. She brings up Charli’s drug addiction, compares her to a dog and belittles the complex emotions that Charli was expressing in “Sympathy is a knife.”

Swift’s response, while she is entitled to one, was in bad taste. Swift is an incredibly successful musician who doesn’t need to be punching down artists who feel intimidated by her status.

For someone who endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election and has been open in the past about her dislike for Donald Trump, Swift has been photographed hanging around MAGA supporters recently, such as Chase Rice and Will Compton. Though, that would make sense since Swift does prefer her friends to be controversial. Track 10 on her album, “CANCELLED!,” is a commentary on cancel culture. Swift boasts in the song, “Good thing I like my friends cancelled,” which is an interesting sentiment and one that doesn’t come across how she may have hoped it would given the current political climate. “I like my friends with morals” may have been more apt.

In fact, the album seems to be littered with conservative dog whistles that are confusing, given Swift’s past political stance. In the song “Wi$h Li$t,” Swift discusses not wanting fame or expensive things, but instead a husband, kids and driveway with a basketball hoop. While there is nothing inherently wrong with wanting these things, it’s the way that she looks down on other pathways to promote a sort of “trad-wife” lifestyle. Swift has never been one to embrace or enforce traditional gender roles in the past, but now she says that other people “want that complex female character,” while she just wants a neighborhood full of kids that look exactly like Kelce.

Smaller things were also disappointing, although not as overwhelmingly impactful upon reception of the album. Things like not reimagining the term “Father Figure” into something more empowering, “The Fate of Ophelia” seemingly misunderstanding “Hamlet” and using the term “bitch” in a derogatory manner in “Honey.”

Many songs on “The Life of a Showgirl” also have sonic parallels to other popular songs. The title track shares striking similarities to “Cool” by the Jonas Brothers and “Actually Romantic” is reminiscent of “Where Is My Mind?” by the Pixies. While some people have viewed this as an intentional choice on Swift’s part to pay homage to other artists on her “Showgirl” album, it also comes across as a lack of creativity from Swift and her producers, Max Martin and Shellback.

Swift also released over 20 variants of the album in the form of CDs, vinyls, cassettes and digital downloads. The announcements of these variants being, essentially, the only promotion for the album during its rollout made the whole thing feel like a cash-grab, an odd tactic given Swift’s billionaire status.

Ultimately, “The Life of a Showgirl” could have done with some rethinking, revision and less “yes-men” in Swift’s inner circle. The album has catchy lyrics and beats in some places, but these are overshadowed by much larger faults. It is clear based on past work that Swift has the ability to write powerful songs and put out a thoughtful album, but “The Life of a Showgirl” was not that.