Break out your glitter gel pens and make those friendship bracelets – the 12th album by global pop superstar Taylor Swift is sexier, shinier, and more fun than ever.
Fans of Swift are accustomed to her deeply stylistic storytelling; every song acts as its own mini universe, dragging fans headfirst, fearless into a sonic landscape all her own. The lyrics are typically rich, her vulnerability shining through every crack and her ability to create a living, breathing world unmatched. Albums like “Folklore” and “Evermore,” nearly entirely comprised of fictional roads, and the characters that find themselves lost alongside them, were works of pandemic magic. Her earlier works, like “Red” and “Speak Now,” were the musings of a girl promised love, and searching desperately to find it – often times, coming up short (to no fault of her own). It’s a classic symptom of girlhood: trusting all the wrong guys, because “when somebody tells you they love you, you’re gonna believe them.”
Growing up, Taylor was the big sister I never had; she understood every emotion, every tear shed, and every heartbreak. The highs and the lows were enjoyed alongside her, her albums acting as the soundtrack to thousands of adolescent lives. Her stories, whether her own or entirely made up, felt so specifically tailored to my life; essentially, Taylor stole my teenage diary.
This album, however, is different; we are not getting as many stories.
Swift is finally living her own fairytale.
Famously engaged to Kansas City Chief tight end, Travis Kelce, Swift has found the light she’s been looking for. Fans have followed along her journey for decades, going through the heartbreak, turmoil, and grief alongside her. Each album has been laced with the specific emotions of age, loss, and heartbreak – and a few that she thought were love. She was digging deep, not only inside of herself, but into what it means to truly get an audience.
Now, she just gets to have fun.
“The Life Of A Showgirl” isn’t searching for anything. It isn’t trying to be your next favorite album, or the top hit on your Spotify Unwrapped. Here, Taylor is finally living as her shiniest self – and is letting fans in on parts of her life rarely before explored.
A prime example? The 9th track in the album, “Wood.” Singing about how Travis’ “love was the key that opened my thighs” is far more risqué than Swift’s ever been before; the closest I can recall is “Dress” off of her (recently reclaimed) sixth studio album, “Reputation” – and even that wasn’t as forward as this. It’s an exciting change of pace for Swift, leaning more into the whims of internet-proclaimed “Tay-Daughter” Sabrina Carpenter’s sexual songwriting. She’s ready to claim herself fully; unlike in her previous long-term relationship with actor Joe Alwyn, the singer is no longer hiding; alongside Kelce, she’s finally allowed to be fully herself – and is showing the world just what she’s made of.
Speaking of Sabrina Carpenter, Swift closes the album with a collaboration with the pint-sized popstar. The title track, “The Life Of A Showgirl,” brings back Swift’s signature storytelling ever so slightly, weaving fiction into reality by telling fans what it’s actually like to be a showgirl. “The more you play, the more you pay, you’re softer than a kitten so you don’t know the life of a showgirl babe, and you’re never gonna wanna,” the pop powerhouse sings, warning the audience of what it costs to make it big. “Do you wanna take a skate on the ice inside my veins?” Sabrina chimes in, proving popularity comes at a price; you’ve got to be cold to make it. So, cover up the bruises and put on your boa – you’ve got a show to run.
My favorite lyric on the album, however, is easy; found on the Reputation-reminiscent track “CANCELLED!” Swift sings about the social epidemic that is public cancellation – and how she likes her friends that way. “Now they’ve broke you like they’ve broken me,” she muses, “but shattered glass is a lot more sharp.” Taylor has written a lot of life-altering lyrics in her day, but, for me, this is a whole other ball game. Every young person knows what it’s like to be broken (and if you haven’t, congratulations) but here, Swift flips heartbreak on its head, turning trauma to total power. You’re sharper and wiser for what you’ve gone through – and don’t you forget it.
And, finally, every Swiftie knows about the infamous track five. Typically hardest-hitting track on each album, the fifth song is eagerly anticipated by fans with each release. With songs like “White Horse,” “Dear John,” and the infamous “All Too Well” on the roster, there was a lot to live up to with The Life Of A Showgirl – and it did not disappoint. “Eldest Daughter,” a song about being the parental guinea pig (as all first children are) and losing hope in yourself was all too relatable for this eldest daughter. In a world so tumultuous and cruel, it’s hard not to lose faith in yourself.
But that’s what’s so great about Swift, and why fans have connected so much. She feels like our sister, our friend, our mother – a proven example that life can actually work out the way you want it to, even when you’ve lost hope. People love to claim that all of her songs are regurgitated heartbreak tracks, and, while it’s true heartbreak is part of the story, it’s not even close to the whole thing; now, there’s love. There’s hope. There’s a future she always pined for and never quite reached, but now?
It’s right in front of her.
So, if “The Life of A Showgirl” means working hard, showing up, facing the backlash, but still having fun- isn’t there a showgirl inside all of us?