Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl is a unique album. Swift’s discography has been a huge part of my life for a long time, and having experienced so much of her work over the years, this album demonstrates Swift’s evolution as an artist. TLOAS is a steep departure from her previous album The Tortured Poets Department, being more of a “happy” album in Swift’s discography. This album is most reminiscent of her previous albums 1989 and Midnights. The album was announced over a few days in August, and while it would be fifty days before the public got the slightest taste of TLOAS, it gained a reputation online for being a bright and colorful album. This album is a first for Swift, being produced by Swift alongside Swedish producers Max Martin and Shellback. Sonically, most tracks on TLOAS are lighter, relying more on Swift’s vocals than a bass background like many of her previous works.
After listening to the entire album, each of its tracks are their own individual storylines. TLOAS doesn’t seem to have a cohesive beginning-to-end storyline. It also doesn’t fit just one theme; it has multiple main ideas and concepts. Notably, the album isn’t as related to the Eras Tour as Swifties once thought. While the title track does contain a few allusions to the Eras Tour, including audio of the last Eras Tour crowd cheering, there aren’t otherwise many references to the historic tour, focusing more on her private life and ideas than she has shown fans in a long time. Most tracks contribute to the album’s themes of finding love, moving on, and setting things straight.
This album’s a must-listen, and it ranks among her earlier works. Each of the album’s twelve tracks are covered in this review, with a lyrical and sonic summary for each one, as well as commentary on Swift and the songs and how they relate to her. Without further ado, enjoy!
- The Fate of Ophelia
This track serves as the lead single for The Life of a Showgirl, and for good reason. The Fate of Ophelia is a catchy, ‘80s-esque synth-bass pop song. It serves as a pleasant introduction to Swift’s newest album. Swift calls back to a Shakespearean classic once again, previously doing so on her early hit Love Story (2008). This time, Swift references, not as much reworks, Hamlet. The main idea of this song is that someone, “Saved (her) heart from the fate of Ophelia”. The lyrics set the song against an almost Shakespearean backdrop, and contains multiple references to Hamlet. Overall, this song is a great introduction to TLOAS and is a good first step into understanding this album.
- Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor is a somewhat romantic song that sounds a bit like a mix between angst and . Notably, this track contains multiple references to Elizabeth Taylor, alluding to her famous violet eyes, and spots she would frequent. In Elizabeth Taylor, Swift talks to an unknown person, and basically says that she can’t live without them. This song is reminiscent of the previous song on TLOAS, The Fate of Ophelia, as well as Swift’s 2017 single …Ready For It? In which she also compares herself to Elizabeth Taylor. While Swift shares small bits of candidness in the song’s lyrics, this track is a small piece of the album, and it doesn’t add much to the album sonically or lyrically. It’s still worth a lo
- Opalite
Opalite is one of the more popular tracks on TLOAS. Described by Swift as a “Love letter to Travis”, this song is incredibly catchy. Reminiscent of an upbeat, summertime Sabrina Carpenter single, Opalite can be described as a high-energy, mid-tempo pop song. Lyrically, this song is about finding love after many heartbreaks. Opalite itself is an artificial gemstone; it is meant to replicate opal. Opal (uncoincidentally) is Kelce’s birthstone. Swift also (seemingly) wanted to convey that she is artificially creating happiness and joy despite the chaos that life brings her.
- Father Figure
An unexpected departure from the upbeat first three tracks, Father Figure is an interpolation of George Michael’s 1987 breakout hit of the same name. This song is about an apprenticeship, with Swift being, “(A) father figure” to an unknown person. Throughout the song, Swift asserts dominance over the unnamed person in various contexts. This song is the first of many in TLOAS to be marked as “Explicit”. Sonically, this track features a slower-paced beat and less production as compared to the first three tracks. However, despite this song being Swift’s first remix in three years, this track didn’t stand out.
- Eldest Daughter
Never skip a “track five”. Swifties had high expectations for this song, since Swift makes the fifth tracks on her albums more emotionally charged and candid than the others, and sticking to tradition, the fifth track on TLOAS is undoubtedly one of the most candid, open songs on TLOAS. This song is both about Swift serving as a metaphorical “eldest daughter” to her music industry contemporaries, and her public persona, tying into the “Showgirl” theme of this album. The beat of this song perfectly matches Swift’s vocals and lyrics to a tee, which made Swift’s message as clear as possible: she’s done pretending to be someone she can’t be. This song is a significant turning point in the album, and it cannot be missed.
- Ruin the Friendship
While Swift’s ‘track fives’ are known for their higher emotion, Ruin the Friendship is arguably an even more candid and open song. Upon first listening to this song, one would assume that it’s a happy departure from Eldest Daughter. Even when first reading through the lyrics, I didn’t find anything too negative. The song reads like a happy love song at times. However, when listening to the lyrics carefully, I discovered that the song is, in fact, about mourning someone and regret. Swift wrote the song about experiencing regret about not acting on a high school crush, who later passed away. To say I was shocked would be an understatement! Overall, I liked the song. It’s a good song.
- Actually Romantic
Actually Romantic wasn’t the song most Swifties would ever expect. Leading up to its release, many Swifties believed it to be a love song. Actually Romantic is instead an alleged diss track. It’s heavily rumored to be about longtime friend, singer Charli XCX. The lyrics speak about someone who is obsessed with her and who insults her. Swift mentions that the unknown person calls her “Boring Barbie”, and that they said that they, “Can’t stand to see (Swift’s) face”. Sonically, however, it’s a slow-paced, slightly upbeat guitar song, and the beat itself doesn’t translate to the lyrics whatsoever. I liked it and I cackled so much when she compared the person to a chihuahua in a purse.
- Wi$h Li$t
A not-so-subtle love letter towards fiancé Travis Kelce, this song sees Swift detail her plans with Travis, including to “have a couple kids” and “settle down”. She mentions wanting people to, “Leave (her and Kelce) alone”. Swift typically isn’t so direct and candid with her listeners, so this track is incredibly valuable and essential to truly processing Swift’s newest album. As for its sound, this track doesn’t contain as much production as many of the other songs on TLOAS. I liked it, though. I could get past how much of a love letter it was, thankfully.
- Wood
Make sure you’re playing the clean version of this song in public! Inarguably the most explicit one on TLOAS, Wood contains a litany of euphemisms and double-entendres. While Swift describes the song as, “Being thankful, and ‘knocking on wood’”, this is an incredible basic summary of the song, and it doesn’t reflect the true nature of the song at all. Sonically, it’s mid-paced, and is reminiscent of Sabrina Carpenter’s signature upbeat sound. Lyrically, it seemingly has Sabrina’s writing style too, reading like a thinly-veiled love letter to fiancé Travis Kelce. Recently, the song went somewhat viral across social media, due to its humorous lyrics. I liked it before realizing what it was about, and then I liked it a bit more.
- CANCELLED!
Leading up to the release of TLOAS, many Swifties believed that this song would be about the cancellation of all three Eras Tour shows in Vienna. However, like much of Swift’s twelfth album, this track went in a different direction. Throughout the song, Swift mentions that, “(She) likes her friends cancelled”, likely in reference to some of her old friends who attracted significant negative attention in the press. Swift also, however, invites the unknown person to “come with her”. Amusingly, Swift actually intended to make the lyrics “cringey”, to reflect a casual conversation with all its quirks and flaws. This song simply is remarkable. It had a lot of potential, but Swift did not see all of it. However, this song is still an important component in TLOAS and it’s a no-skip. This song honestly gave me heavy reputation vibes.
- Honey
This track is lyrical proof of Taylor Swift’s lyrical prowess. Honey was largely speculated to be about partner Travis Kelce, a theory which turned out to be correct. Swift uses the word “honey” in the song as a term of both cynicism and endearment, since her various ex-partners of hers would call her that, and now Kelce does so. While her exes meant “honey” as a cynical and demeaning term towards Swift, Kelce uses it as a term of endearment and affection. This contrast stood out to me so much upon relistening to the album, as the song’s true nature wasn’t easy to pick up on at first. This song isn’t a huge piece of the entire album, but it’s a no-skip in my opinion. I liked it.
- The Life of a Showgirl (ft. Sabrina Carpenter)
Being Swift’s newest collaboration, the title track for this album is a good description of this album. Sabrina Carpenter’s vocals fit remarkably well with the beat. I feel like this is a kind of upbeat, but also kind of catchy conclusion to Swift’s newest album. Some of the lyrics are not on-par with Swift’s songwriting reputation, such as when she used “legitly” instead of “legitimately”. I almost physically cringed. However, this song clearly fires on every other cylinder. This song is, of course, a key part of this album, and it cannot be skipped. The way that Swift and Carpenter went back-and-forth throughout this song really stood out to me, and Swift adding the cheers from the last Eras Tour crowd made me so happy, to be honest. Great way to end the album.
As a diehard Swiftie since 2014, this album really stood out to me. It’s a bit like the album that introduced me to Taylor’s music: Red. Just like Red, this album is unique and eccentric, for sure. The vibes in this album gave me flashbacks to the Midnights era so much, since they’re both very flamboyant. TLOAS is like the post-Eras Tour, much happier version of Midnights, so if you liked Midnights, you’ll love this album. I liked Midnights a lot and I’d been impatiently waiting for three years for an album with a similar vibe. I loved TTPD, but I wanted happier songs. The TLOAS announcement literally made the whole month better for me. Listening to this album back to back, it’s honestly not my new favorite. But in my opinion, it’s great and definitely in my top five Taylor Swift albums.
