× “The Life of a Showgirl” is Taylor Swift’s twelfth album, and is one of her most controversial yet. As with every release from Swift, it has received many opinions. However, the difference this time round is that TLOASG has divided Swift fans into two; those who love the album, and those who are incredibly disappointed the latest instalment in Swift’s varied discography.
This album has been Swift’s most widely criticised piece of work yet. It seems almost anyone with access to the internet has come online to give their thoughts. Sonically, TLOASG is reminiscent of Swift’s “1989” album, with major pop influences and taking inspiration from George Michael (Swift does her own version of the iconic “Father Figure”), and having one feature on the album from the one and only pop queen herself – Sabrina Carpenter.
For full disclosure, I am not a “Swiftie”. I can, however, appreciate Swift’s undeniable talent when it comes to crafting characters, environments and stories within her songwriting. I think “reputation”, “folklore” and “evermore” are very good albums, with incredible world-building elements and a level of poeticism that, rightfully so, have become synonymous with Swift’s music in the past few years.
Yet, as with every album rollout from Swift, she makes many a promise to fans that every piece of work released will be one of her best yet, urging her dedicated fans to pre-order the album before a single has even been released. Come release day, the internet is flooded with praise, criticism, love and hate from anyone and everyone. Often times, the praise outweighs the insults. However, this time was very different.
Almost immediately, TikTok users were filming themselves mocking the lyrics of many of the songs from the album, such as: “I’m not a bad bitch / And this isn’t savage”, “Redwood tree it ain’t hard to see / his love was the key that opened my thighs”, or even “Good thing I like my friends cancelled / I like ’em cloaked in Gucci and scandal”. Many have deemed the lyrics as “cringy” and sounding almost AI generated. Even Swift’s take of George Michael’s “Father Figure” has been deemed as an insult by some, taking the depth from the original track away in her interpolation.
The album has also faced backlash from listeners claiming that it seems to copy many other songs without crediting them; “Wood” sounds eerily similar to the beginning of Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back“, and “The Life of a Showgirl” exactly like Jonas Brothers’ track “Cool”. Considering that Swift fought to have songwriting credits on Olivia Rodrigo’s hit track “de ja vu” after Rodrigo publicly claimed that she was inspired by Swift’s “Cruel Summer”, it feels hypocritical and quite frankly, superficial.
I believe the problem with this album is that it falls incredibly short of depth. Swift has always been very skilled in being able to create tracks that can be fun and witty, while simultaneously covering serious topics such as misogyny, sexism and infidelity. To echo many users online, the lyrics of TLOASG seem to fall flat. Swift seems to have gone very far with her sexual innuendos this time round – something we’ve seen work incredibly well for Sabrina Carpenter, whose witty innuendos and metaphors have become her signature songwriting style. This has not been received well, with people feeling that the lyrics seem forced and a failed attempt to copy Carpenter.
The internet has also been up in arms about “Actually Romantic”, a very obvious response to Charli xcx and her hit song “sympathy is a knife”. “Actually romantic” is a clear reference to Charli xcx’s song “Everything is romantic”. Users online believe that Swift has taken the song to heart, when really Charli’s track was about her feeling insecure about her own ability to be successful. Swift seems to have massively misinterpreted the track, being downright mean and calling out Charli xcx for drug use and her “apparent” obsession with her.
However, many listeners have called Swift a “mean girl” and criticised her for her inability to see that “Sympathy is a knife” wasn’t a directed attack on her directly, but rather a dissection of Charli xcx’s deepest insecurities and unfair standards she sets on herself. The internet has not to taken “Actually Romantic” as it did to “Everything is romantic”, and quite honestly? I’m inclined to agree that this reeks of cattiness and a huge misunderstanding.
All in all, this album lacks clever songwriting, cohesive themes, and the incredibly intelligent lyrics we normally see from Miss Swift. “TLOASG” feels like a rushed album which many fans have publicly stated, as well as feeling that they cannot defend some of the badly written lyrics in the album. Yes, Swift often uses her albums to mark the beginning of a new era or a new aesthetic, but given the title of the album being “The Life of a Showgirl”, many were hoping there would be more songs pertaining to being a performer/showgirl – there is only really one. It’s received mixed reviews from many publications, with some magazines giving it a perfect store, and some giving it as low as one star – making it one of Swift’s lowest rated albums to date.
This album has truly created a divide among Swifties – one that I don’t think has ever been so abundantly clear. I have to say that I normally enjoy a few songs from Taylor Swift’s latest release, however I must admit that the blunt and almost basic songwriting really lets it down for me. The production by Max Martin is wonderful, but the lyrical content is perhaps Swift’s worst ever. I commend her for bravely attempting a new musical era. However, I cannot forgive the poor execution.
2/5 stars.
