Taylor Swift The Life of a Showgirl Review
Maybe that showgirl headdress weighs heavily after all.
Taylor Swift maintains her heroic work rate with the sort-of-surprise release of her twelfth studio album. The Life of a Showgirl was written during the European leg of the Eras tour - as if she wasn’t busy enough - and has been billed as her return-to-pop album.
Produced in collaboration with Swedish hitmakers Max Martin and Shellback, with whom she made Reputation, it is not quite the girl-just-wants-to-have-fun collection it was purported to be.
Swift’s preoccupations are, as usual, her love life (mostly rapturous), her professional life and public persona (claws slightly extended) and a touch of bittersweet nostalgia, all wrapped up in overcooked lyrical allusions.
This time she has her sights on Shakespeare as she gives thanks that her new love helped her avoid The Fate Of Ophelia.
“I might have lingered in purgatory” she ruminates on this sultry pop opener but her response is relief rather than exultation as she hits the gentle lift of the chorus.
Read more here: At Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour: “The happiness in the stadium felt like it was sending a beam up into the sky, a beacon of hope”
She sticks with the cultural icons on Elizabeth Taylor, musing over whether her new love will be enduring on her “we’ll always have Portofino” moment, while the cutesy finger popping chorus of Opalite riffs on lesser sung gemstone imagery to encapsulate her relationship with fiancé Travis Kelce.
Read more here: When can I listen to Taylor Swift’s new album? Exact time of The Life of a Showgirl UK release - and track listing
She nods to George Michael on the swooning orchestral pop of Father Figure but herprotagonist is far from a nurturing character.
Rather, this is a swipe at proprietorial music moguls such as her former label boss Scott Borchetta.
She sticks in waspish territory on Actually Romantic and kicks off floaty ballad Eldest Daughter with her thoughts on the online bearpit where “everyone’s unbothered until they are not”.
However, the album starts to lose a bit of pop steam as she settles into mid-paced territory.
Ruin the Friendship features a prominent burbling bassline as she gets nostalgic for a schooldays crush.
The cute pop/soul of Wood, with a Jacksons-referencing guitar line, makes reference to Swift’s and Kelce’s Redwood-tall height…and to something else bordering on tmi, while the title track with Sabrina Carpenter is not the great fun it might have been.
Maybe that showgirl headdress weighs heavily after all.
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