Review: Taylor Swift’s 12th Album “The Life of a Showgirl”

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Skidmore chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

By Jana Coppola

On Friday October 3rd we officially entered the showgirl era! Swift’s

12 track, 41 minute pop gem has shown us just how happy she is with

her life right now. After her engagement to Travis Kelce, she is

thriving and joyful, and this album is the culmination of all the

beautiful ways her life has developed since the second half of the

Eras Tour began. She works with collaborators Max Martin and

Shellback on this album, a pair that is responsible for helping her

create over 5 of her most popular songs ever (Style, Blank Space, 22,

etc). Let’s go track by track to review the album’s new sound and

lyrics! (This is all opinion-based!)

1. The Fate of Ophelia

One of her strongest track 1’s in a few years, The Fate of Ophelia

takes the doomed tragedy of Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet

and turns it into a love song that you simply can’t get out of your

head. This song has already garnered thousands of TikTok’s online in

which fans are doing the dance Taylor did in the music video. This

song is in my personal top 3 on the album because of the catchy

tune, classic poetic lyrics, and fun vibe!

2. Elizabeth Taylor

This song has grown on me every day since the album came out.

When I listened to the album at midnight on release day, it was the

beat drop for the chorus on this song that solidified the fact that this

album was nothing like what I expected. The bridge is addicting with

its descending chords and shows us, yet again, that Taylor doesn’t

want Travis to be anything but hers.

3. Opalite

Happy Taylor is back! I haven’t heard Taylor fill a song with this much

pure joy and excitement since Paper Rings on her 7th album Lover.

While this song could also be interpreted to be about Travis, Taylor

herself said in the release party movie that this song is really an ode

to creating your own joy and happiness despite your past and

whatever is going on in your life. “You had to make your own

sunshine”. What a sweet sentiment!

4. Father Figure

This song has also grown on me every day! On the first listen I

immediately tied this song to her old mentor, Scott Borchetta, who

discovered her at 16 in Nashville and took her under his wing before

he betrayed her and sold her masters to Scooter Braun in 2018. This

song is such a cool way to proclaim her power after reclaiming her

masters and showing that SHE protects the “family” (interpreted by

fans to be her 6 masters since she repeats this phrase 6 times). A

proclamation of power done right.

5. Eldest Daughter

Taylor has taught Swifties that her track 5’s are typically the most

vulnerable and raw on her albums, and while this is no different, it

personally misses the mark. I am willing to understand that the

internet-based lyrics are meant to be satirical and a reflection of her

struggle to feel cool but I am personally opposed to Gen-Z slang

lyrics even if they come from my favorite singer! That being said, this

song has the most classic Taylor Swift bridge of the whole album and

reminds me of her Speak Now writing. Young Taylor is still in there!

6. Ruin the Friendship

This is my favorite track on the album! A rollercoaster of emotions,

this song slowly reveals that it’s not only about telling your best

friend that you like them, but doing it before it is too late. The song

chronicles a high school-aged Taylor having a crush on her friend but

not doing anything about it and later finding out that he passed

away. Her advice is to “always ruin the friendship, better that than

regret it for all time”. Teenage girls all over the world are about to

make big decisions!

7. Actually Romantic

This song closes out my top 3 on the album because of its subtly

reputation-esque confident energy. Taylor twists the narrative that

hate about her is offensive and hurts her feelings, instead saying that

the time people spend talking badly about her is actually romantic. I

think that this is such a hard-core way to address the hate that she

receives for every single thing she does (including this album). I love

the energy, especially the adlibs in the outro!

8. Wi$h Li$t

While the sentiment of this song is incredibly sweet, this song is still

growing on me. I love the chorus, but overall, the production seems a

bit too understated to me. I don’t think it supports the lyrics of the

verse which leaves both of them lacking. I do love to hear that she is

ready to “boss up, settle down” though, and that she sees that for her

and Travis.

9. Wood

What to say about this song… Well to start, I’m obsessed with it. I

truly thought it was about superstitions for a while, that is until she

hit the post-chorus! I can’t say much about the content of this song,

but it contains the most explicit content we’ve heard since Dress.

The beat is so old school and danceable and the lyrics just make the

production even more fun.

10.CANCELLED!

This is another one of those songs that feels too on-the-nose for me.

It seems too overtly edgy in a performative way, which I know is her

brand in some senses but I didn’t think it worked as well with this

song. She also uses internet slang (ie. “Did you girlboss too close to

the sun?”) which I have already established is not my favorite.

Bottom 2 of the album in my opinion.

11. Honey

When I was hypothesizing what this song would be about, this was

not in the list of options I had thought of! I think the idea of the song

is really sweet but the beat is very generic and almost gets lofi

sounding at times. It is definitely sweet and catchy but repetitive at

times.

12.The Life of a Showgirl (Feat. Sabrina Carpenter)

I was pleasantly surprised by the sound of this song! Sabrina fits into

this track so beautifully, and her voice is showcased in such a cool

way. I love the theater vibe of the bridge, and the way Sabrina says

“false lashes” is mesmerizing. It is classic Taylor storytelling that

incorporates a fictional character as well as her own reality, which

she has done masterfully on many occasions. And the Eras Tour

audio at the end wraps this album up very nicely.

Overall, I would say that this album is very low in my ranking of all of

her albums, but not because it is bad. The internet has already had a

lot to say about this album, some I agree with, but much of it I don’t.

Many of the songs are amazing and only time will tell with how the

world’s opinion of this album will shift.