On August 11th, fans of the renowned artist Taylor Swift were greeted with a surprise when a countdown appeared on the singer’s website, ending the next day, August 12th, at 12:12 pm ET. Swift has been known by her fanbase for leaving clues and messages, so with the countdown looming, many anticipated the upcoming surprise. Once the timer had ended, the next day, many were greeted with the announcement of Taylor’s 12th studio album, Life of A Showgirl. In the days to come, Swift would appear on her now fiancé, Travis Kelce’s podcast, revealing the album cover and teasing much more to come up until its release last week on October 3rd.
The release of the album generated a lot of anticipation, as it comes just over a year after Swift’s last album, The Tortured Poets Department and about nine months after the end of her highly acclaimed Eras World Tour. However, now a week after the album’s debut has passed, much of the hype has seemingly died down. As many sat down to listen to the album for the first time, several fans of the artist were left with disappointment.
Unfortunately, Life of a Showgirl, while providing a fun listen some lacks energy and a message for itself, ultimately feeling shallow in comparison to her past albums. While the first three tracks of the album, Fate of Ophelia, Elizabeth Taylor and Opalite, are probably the best of the album, bringing in a charming pop vibe that fit with the aesthetics that have been associated closely to the album, it is unfortunately not enough to properly bring this album up to the great heights it could have achieved. A well-liked aspect of Swift’s music is her lyricism and storytelling through each song. It seems that Swift tries to capture the trend of pop stars like Sabrina Carpenter with her music being a lot more suggestive but unfortunately, the performance does not contain the same energy and ironically showmanship that makes music like Carpenter’s capture audiences’ attention.
With several developments in Swift’s life both professionally and personally, the build up for an album titled around being a performer unfortunately falls flat. The many that could be said here are not delivered and leave a feeling of underwhelming disappointment to even Swift’s biggest fans. There are still several editions of the album and potential remixes to come, however, so it is unclear if those or any possible live performances can change the perception of how the music is seen in a positive light later in the future or a dark spot in Swift’s long discography.
