Taylor Swift released her twelfth studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” on Oct. 3. Its reception ranges from mixed to disappointed. While Swift’s recent releases, from “folklore” and “evermore” to “Midnights” and “The Tortured Poets Department,” have been met with widespread enjoyment and critical acclaim for their immersive themes and taut storylines, “The Life of a Showgirl” failed to create such a consensus.
Swift has experimented with several different sounds and themes throughout her career, and occasionally even within the same album, which she has admitted might have cost her a Grammy. Many reviewers proposed that “Midnights” and “The Tortured Poets Department” provided a mix of all her styles thus far. One could say the same for “The Life of a Showgirl” upon close viewing, although for different reasons.
If “The Tortured Poets Department” offered a seamless and satisfying blend of all her production styles and methods of lyricism, then “The Life of a Showgirl” may instead render a fractured mosaic of those sounds and voices that listeners find harder to appreciate.
Swift shared in her acceptance speech at the Nashville Songwriter Awards in 2022 that she classifies all her songs into three categories of lyrical style: “quill lyrics, fountain pen lyrics and glitter gel pen lyrics.” She elaborated, “If the words and phrasings are antiquated,” then she considers them quill lyrics, and “fountain pen style means a modern storyline or references with a poetic twist.” Finally, she said “glitter gel pen lyrics don’t care if you don’t take them seriously because they don’t take themselves seriously” as they are “frivolous, carefree, bouncy” and “syncopated.”
That said, listeners can infer that Swift knows “The Life of a Showgirl” suspends some of the elegance and romance — quill pen and fountain pen lyrics — which run rampant in “folklore,” “evermore” and “The Tortured Poets Department.” Instead, there’s more of the irony and teasing — glitter gel pen lyrics — of “Lover” and “Midnights.”
Swift’s play on Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet” in the album’s opening track, “The Fate of Ophelia,” sets the stage for this focus on humor. However grave Shakespeare’s dramas prove, he constantly melds comedic timing into his work for the sake of the audience.
Why shouldn’t Swift use humor as a primary ingredient in this album, given the severity in her last one? After all, two-thirds of the tracks in “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” directly mentioned death and suicidal thoughts.
Furthermore, perhaps more fans would enjoy the tracks on “The Life of a Showgirl” if the following songs had appeared on different albums instead.
Tracks “Elizabeth Taylor,” “Father Figure”, “Actually Romantic,” “Wi$h Li$t,” and “CANCELLED!” all present content and voice concordant with “reputation.” Responding to gossip and speculation regarding her involvement with celebrities and scandal through zingers like “I can make deals with the devil because my d**k’s bigger” in “Father Figure” and “They want that spring break that was f****n’ lit” in “Wi$h Li$t,” these songs sound like sisters to “Look What You Made Me Do” and “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.”
Layered with the humor and slang of today’s pop culture, Swift makes self-referential choices in production and lyrics, such as “you’re only as hot as your last hit, baby” in “Elizabeth Taylor.” Does Swift have to prove her worth again if she already has over and over?
Meanwhile, “Opalite,” “Wood” and “Honey” serve as peppy and moony tributes to her partner, NFL tight end Travis Kelce. The tracks belong on a playlist with songs like “Paper Rings” and “London Boy” from Lover, due to their cheery imagery and lovestruck lyrics. For example, Swift proclaims, “It’s you and me forever dancing in the dark” in “Wood” and paints a picture of “Summertime spritz, pink skies” in “Honey.”
Lastly, the title track “The Life of a Showgirl (Feat. Sabrina Carpenter),” with Sabrina Carpenter, mirrors “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” and “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me” from “The Tortured Poets Department.” All three tracks explicate her disillusionment with fame over uplifting and anthemic production. These songs work to validate Swift’s dedication and stamina for performance despite the vicious industry and personal hardships which eclipse them through rhymes in “The Life of a Showgirl” like “made her money being pretty and witty” and “the more you play, the more that you pay.”
The criticism that Swift has long recycled material, lyrical and otherwise, is a valid one. But Swift herself referred to this album as a “self portrait” in an Instagram post following its release. How can one form a self-portrait without including their past?
Moreover, audiences can consider that she wrote it for herself more than she wrote it to pander to anyone’s expectations — more specifically, to fully reinvent herself all over again. As she says in “Father Figure,” “this empire belongs to me.”
In other words, Swift has established dominance over the music industry with hits that have reached record-breaking streaming and won her numerous accolades. She has obtained the right to her masters and survived her own period of cancellation. That said, she can, at this point, proffer any kind of work she wishes without worrying about proving her skills as a songwriter, profiting enough to earn a living or alienating her fans.
Seasoned and aware, a showgirl like Taylor Swift knows how to prove her lyrical prowess and express her current mental space — two actions that are not always mutually exclusive. As an artist who has established the ethos to do whatever she wants, Swift has transcended a need for critical acclaim and reached an apex from which she can simply write on a whim. It appears that, this time, Swift has chosen to merge her history as a public figure and her spectrum of musical genres into one album — not for the sake of a thematic coherence, but for fun.
Carmen Lin is an Arts & Entertainment Intern for the fall 2025 quarter. She can be reached at carmnml@uci.edu.
Edited by June Min and Annabelle Aguirre.
