Life of a Showgirl: A Double Review

Outsider opinions from Gabriel Campos

I am not a fan of Taylor Swift. I have liked some of Taylor's work, specifically from her Folklore and Evermore era, but nothing has really jumped out at me and gotten me to stick around. I'm not a big fan of pop in general, mostly, I find the polished production and catchy melodies uninteresting, though I can see the appeal. All of that to say I am a relative outsider to Taylor’s music, and pop music in general. However, I love music, so when I was told to review The Life of a Showgirl and give my perspective, I was intrigued to see what I had been missing out on.

I did not like this album, and I believe it has several fatal flaws that prevented me from taking any real pleasure from it. The first three tracks are solid, specifically Elizabeth Taylor, which was a standout on the album. The use of drums and bass spoke to me as a rock and hip-hop fan, and the more mellow, introspective tone initially endeared me to the project. Nothing I'd listen to intently, but decent, catchy, well written tracks.

Moving into the fourth track, Father Figure, is when I first encountered what I'd consider to be the album's most fatal flaw. The lyrics throughout the album are abysmal, ranging from confusing to cringeworthy to straight-up angering. It all came across as out of touch, a thirty-five-year-old complaining about her high school days and how everyone hates her, despite being one of, if not the most beloved pop musicians of the last twenty years. All the imagery and figurative language feel overindulgent and vapid. The record feels teenage-ish and immature in general, and the lack of self-awareness is deeply disappointing. Two tracks particularly stuck out to me in terms of frustrating content, Actually Romantic, and CANCELLED!. CANCELLED! is frankly my least favorite track on the album, only because it would have been my favorite if not for the terrible lyrics which seem very out of touch and regressive. Sonically, the track is a triumph, but the lyrics sully it entirely and leave me bitter. In general, the whole cancel culture complaint feels deeply self-indulgent and tone-deaf, and something we should have left in 2020. Actually Romantic feels similarly tone deaf, a diss-track for an artist that didn't even diss Taylor, using shallow metaphors to ridicule a pop icon because an out-of-context quote bruised her ego. I am not a fan of Charli XCX, simply because pop and electronic music are two genres I don't actively listen to, but even I can acknowledge that this diss was odd and a very bad look on Swift's part. The album also feels incohesive, there's no real flow between tracks, and it lacks the feel of a carefully put together album. The final track, The Life of a Show Girl, featuring Sabrina Carpenter, feels inconclusive and anticlimactic. It does nothing to tie the themes of the record together, despite being its title track, and though Sabrina tries her best to save it, it remains musically uninteresting. The subject matter is the only thing tying the album together, mostly in regards to complaining about fame or bragging about her fiancé (Jason is the better Kelce, and go birds by the way).

Overall, as a non-Swiftie, The Life of a Show Girl was a mess of boring production, terrible lyrics, and a lack of clear artistic vision that did very little to appeal to me. The more I think about the project, the more it angers me, because it had good ideas and lots of potential that it totally squandered. Taylor is undoubtedly extremely talented, and her voice was the standout of the project for me, but her talent couldn't save a self-indulgent, tone-deaf album lacking any real substance. I give it a light five out of ten.

Insider opinions from Katie Stansbury

On Friday, October 3rd, Taylor Swift dropped her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, and like many other fans of hers, I hurried to listen to it. I’ve played the album multiple times all the way through, and I’ve now identified what I like and dislike about it.

Compared to most of her other 15 major studio albums, The Life of a Showgirl pales in comparison, and I would put it third to last in order of best to worst albums. It’s not terrible, but her other albums contain greater amounts of songs I like.

The first song, “The Fate of Ophelia,” is one of the stronger songs on the album since it’s catchy and has a good beat, and I enjoy the literary reference she makes through it. I also like “Opalite,” “Father Figure,” “Ruin the Friendship,” and “The Life of a Showgirl.” “Ruin the Friendship” has a more youthful and playful feeling to it that I enjoy, and I like the blend of Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift’s voices in “The Life of a Showgirl.” Additionally, “Opalite” stands out with a very catchy chorus and melody, and it stays stuck in my head for days after listening to it. But other than those songs, the rest of them— “Wood,” “Wishlist,” “Eldest Daughter,” “Honey,” “Elizabeth Taylor,” and “CANCELLED”— are just not as catchy and the music in some of them doesn’t resonate with me. Some of these feel more surface level and less unique, and they sound like songs that other artists could be singing as well. In addition, the song “Actually Romantic” on the album, which is rumoured to be a diss track about Charli XCX, seems unnecessary to me, even as a Taylor Swift fan. I think she shouldn’t have written a diss track on this album, and that she overreacted to Charli’s song “Sympathy is a Knife.

Overall, from my perspective as a fan of Taylor Swift, the album only has a couple songs on it that I like, and while the rest aren’t necessarily offensive or terrible, I just wouldn’t go out and listen to them on my own. I think that most of her other studio albums are better than this one.

Though the specifics varied, we both agreed that this album was not for us. We are eagerly awaiting Taylor's next project and hoping it appeals to us more than this one did.