An honest review of “The Life of a Showgirl”
Taylor Swift released her twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, which features twelve tracks, with the last track featuring a special guest appearance by pop singer Sabrina Carpenter. If you’re wondering whether to listen to this album, here is a breakdown, analysis, and rating of Taylor’s album.
DISCLAIMER: I’m a massive Swiftie, and I have seen her four times, bought all her albums, and know almost everything about the Taylor lore. I am in no way shaming, condemning, or hating on Taylor. As first and foremost a Catholic, I will always strive to put purity and goodness in my soul, heart, and mind. I care about Taylor greatly and pray that she has a conversion and really looks at what she is putting out to the world and the messages she is sending.
The Cover
Dare I say, this is Taylor’s most sexual album yet, and it hurts my heart to say that. When she announced her new record on the New Heights Podcast, which is a podcast run by Jason Kelce, and Taylor’s fiancé, Travis Kelce, I was shocked to see an album where Taylor was blatantly showing more skin than she ever has.
And the album photoshoot just got worse from there. It crushed my soul to know that she had a loving boyfriend, had a successful tour that lasted two years, with attendance numbers and ticket sales off the charts, and yet she still felt the need to inappropriately show off her body on the cover (that sold $15 million worth of records only in pre-orders) for a reason I am unsure.
The way the world is now, I would be mortified for anyone to be able to look at my body this way. I don’t care if it’s deemed sexy or if Taylor was trying to fit into an image or play a character, but there are different ways to do this, and not as lustful.
I am also really ashamed of Travis Kelce, who I’m sure approved of this and is so excited for this album. In the New Heights Podcast episode, you can see how gleeful he is to show off his at-the-time girlfriend, and now fiancée, with the cover of the album. I am all for being proud of your significant other, but as a strong man, he should have wanted his fiancée to be private about her body and show off her insanely talented lyrics and voice.
The Songs
The songs are even more revealing than the front of the album. Sexual references aren’t something you think about when listening to Taylor’s discography; in fact, at the top of my head, there are only three songs in eleven albums that even reference sex (Dress, So It Goes, and The Manuscript). Taylor has been known for releasing music for all ages and is no stranger to realizing her growing fan base of younger listeners.
The songs on this album not only reference sex but are completely graphic and, if I’m being honest, tacky. The way that Swift’s die-hard fans have praised and found humor in the the vulgarity of these lyrics is quite honestly foul and is not ‘cool’ in the slightest. I have never felt the need to listen to the clean versions of Taylor’s albums, but I immediately searched for the classier version of TLOAS.
The ninth track on the album, titled, Wood is probably the most catchy song off the album, but it is also the most inappropriate. Taylor makes references to her fiancé, body part in a really unclassy and blatant way. Taylor also sings about opening her thighs for him and sings how Travis has ‘hypnotized’ her in a seemingly sexual way.
There are so many things I could say about this one. How dreadful it is that Taylor puts this out in full knowledge of the younger generation looking up to her, the fact that she reveals the intimacy of her and Travis’ relationship, or the way Travis is fine with her talking about this?
A gentleman, a man would never want their fiancée to speak, or in Taylor’s case, sing about these private moments and describe their parts on an album that will be heard by millions of people. A gentleman should never want their significant other to be so hyper-focused on sex that it seems to be the main focus. A gentleman would not want their family and friends to hear these songs and find humor in these lyrics and act like it’s a normal thing to write a song about.
I find the arguments against this feeling to be weak and sad. ‘It’s just a song, ’ ‘seriously it’s not a big deal,’ ‘she isn’t 15 years old anymore and she doesn’t need to write songs for 10 year olds all the time’.
Yes, maybe that’s true, and maybe the bigger problem lies in the parents who are letting their children listen to smut. In my opinion, this is the last album I would let my little ones listen to. Just because they ‘can’t understand the innuendos,’ it doesn’t mean that we just let them listen to whatever they please.
Courtesy of Taylor Swift || Photographed
Song by Song
The Fate of Ophelia - As a huge fan of music, this song is everything. It has the beat, the lyrics, and that Taylor Swift feel. The song draws to comparison between Taylor and Ophelia from Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet. The lyrics seem to credit Travis Kelce as the reason Taylor didn’t share the same fate as Ophelia did. There is a lyric that says, “pledge allegiance to your hands,” but other than that, the song is relatively clean and has no explicit language.
Rating: 9/10, Clean
Elizabeth Taylor - This isn’t the first time Swift has used Elizabeth Taylor’s name in her discography. This song carries heavy Reputation vibes and serves as another comparison between Elizabeth Taylor’s life and Taylor’s as they both live under microscopes. Taylor uses the song to ask questions about love and life to Elizabeth Taylor. This song has definitely grown on me, but at first listen, it didn’t give me the same aesthetic for the album as the first track did. There is nothing explicit in this song and no language.
Rating: 8/10, Clean
Opalite - This may be TLOAS version of Shake It Off. Taylor said, “it’s a contagiously happy and really an expression of happiness.” the song details what it’s like to find the right person after a series of heartbreaks and how life becomes joyous and there’s simplicity again. I love the chorus, but I’m still letting the rest of the song grow on me. This appears to be one of the most beloved songs from the album. This is by far the cleanest song on the album.
Rating: 6/10, Clean
Father Figure - I saw a reel someone made using this song over scenes of Tony Stark/Iron Man and Peter Parker/Spiderman together from the Avengers movies. Father Figure is about mentor and protege, and those roles reversing over a certain period of time. George Michael’s song of the same name, released in 1988, was sampled in this song. This might be my least favorite song off the album. I like the beat, but I wish this song had gone in another direction. Swift uses a sexual innuendo/language in the chorus. A clean version can be found, and with that word taken out, it makes the whole song clean, but this song does give off an adult theme.
Rating: 5/10, Explicit
Eldest Daughter - This song describes the mental struggles that the eldest sibling or “eldest sister” can experience. Taylor said via the track-by-track of TLOAS that the song can also be translated to “the roles we play in our public life - a life that you portray to other people or what you portray on social media.” I adore the melody of this song, and while this song took getting used to, I think it’s a great addition to Taylor’s discography. It sounds like it should have been on Evemore both lyrically and instrumentally. This song is clean in terms of sexual innuendos, but Taylor does use one curse word in the chorus of this song. A clean version can also be found for this song, and with that word taken out, it makes the whole song clean.
Rating: 8/10, Explicit
Ruin The Friendship - This song is a continuation of a song from “Forever Winter” from Taylor’s album RED (Taylor’s Version). Due to the heavy elements of the song, I wouldn’t necessarily let younger audiences listen to the song, and it provides a trigger warning to those who deal with suicidal ideation/suicidal thoughts. The song tells the story of the feelings Taylor had for a High School friend and the regret of not telling him how she felt or kissing him before his passing. I am a huge fan of Forever Winter, and a massive fan of this song. I don’t feel like this song belongs on this album, however, and I feel like it’s a lack of respect for her friend putting it on an album that’s highly sexual and about her finding her true love. This song is explicit because of one usage of a curse/slang word. There are no sexual innuendos or lyrics in this song.
Rating: 8/10, Clean
Actually Romantic - Okay, I can’t get enough of the first chords. The whole song is Reputation coded and is such a great song. When asked what the song is about, Taylor said, “realizing that someone else has kind of had a one-sided adversarial relationship with you that you didn't know about - (and) you just accepting it as love, accepting it as attention and how flattering (it is) that somebody has made you such a big part of their reality. It is rumored that this song is a response to Charli XCX’s song, Sympathy is a knife which is supposedly about Taylor. There is a sexual innuendo and also lyric about cocaine. A version of this song without the word ‘cociane’ is available on the clean version of the album.
Rating: 9/10, Explicit
Wi$h Li$t - This song talks about all the material things people want and having vastly different dreams than other people. Rather than wanting expensive items, Taylor wishes for a family with Travis where they can be normal. I love what this song is about, and honestly one of the more romantic songs on the album. The song is also one of the most explicit on the album in terms of language, but like every song on the album, you can find a clean version of this song.
Rating: 8/10, Explicit
Wood - Taylor has described this song as “a love story about, you know, kind of using as a plot device superstitions, popular superstitions, good luck charms, bad luck charms, all these different ways that we have decided things are good luck or bad luck, like knocking on wood”. This song is X-rated, given the lyrics where Taylor makes references to a male body part and opening up her thighs. There is a clean version of this song, but the reference is still hidden in plain sight.
Rating: 9/10, Explicit
CANCELLED! - This song is about the essence of cancel culture and how easy it is for someone to be cancelled by people even if they’ve done nothing wrong or controversial. Taylor has been largely judged throughout her career by onlookers who know little to nothing about her personal life, and this song gives off a Reputation vibe about that. It is rumored to be about actress, Blake Lively, or Patrick Mahome’s wife, Brittany Mahomes. Neither of these rumors have been confirmed or spoken about by Taylor. This song is explicit in language. I personally still wouldn’t let a little one listen to this. It does have a dark feel about it, and Taylor does mention scandal and underworld.
Rating: 8/10, Explicit
Honey - This song is about the redemption of a word formerly used by someone who has broken your heart, but is now full of love. When asked about the track, Taylor said, “It's kind of about sort of the idea of healing these old wounds that were caused by certain words that now feel totally lovely and sweet.” I really love this song, especially the bridge. It’s so innocent and sweet, and the melody gives me Midnights feels with just a tinge of 1989. It also sort of reminds me of So High School, which was written about Travis, and I love these types of cute love songs about the relationships we see on screen at Chiefs games. This song does have explicit language, but is otherwise clean.
Rating: 8/10, Explicit
The Life of a Showgirl (feat. Sabrina Carpenter) - I love everything about this song; the melody, lyrics, story, and feature! This song tells the story of…..well…the life of a showgirl. Many have said it is about Britney Spears or Taylor herself, passing the torch to Sabrina Carpenter in terms of music and carrying such a grand portion of the industry. I think it’s a perfect way to end the album, and this is the only song that I really feel like it belongs on the album, which isn’t meant to be a derogatory comment. This song does have quite a few lyrics and explicit words. In verse 2, it is mentioned that the father w*ores around like all men did and that the mother takes pills. I especially love the ending of the song where you can hear the applause of a crowd. Taylor has since said this is the crowd from the last night of the Eras Tour in Vancouver.
Rating: 9/10
Overall
I believe this album was rushed, don’t think the writing process for any of these songs were, but I think the creation of putting songs on the album was. Like I said, the only song that screams life of a showgirl to me is the title track itself, and maybe Opalite. I was expecting a lot more songs like TLOAS and more of a Great Gatsby, cheap, fancy aesthetic.
I also think Taylor has given herself a little bit of a bad name with the vulgarity. I strongly believe Sabrina Carpenter has negatively influenced her, seeing as they have spent a lot of time together. I would have liked the album a lot more if it weren’t so graphic. It’s just so unclassy and foul for absolutely no reason.
With that all being said, to end this post off, I am going to give my opinion on what songs would fit on other albums of Taylor’s:
The Fate of Ophelia - The Tortured Poets Department and weirdly, 1989, maybe a 1989 2.0
Elizabeth Taylor - Reputation or TTPD (more so because of the lyrics)
Opalite - Midnights or Lover
Father Figure - Reputation or Evermore
Eldest Daughter - 1000% Evermore
Ruin the Friendship - Lover or Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)
Actually Romantic - Midnights
Wi$h Li$t - Reputation or Midnghts
Wood - If it wasn’t so explicit Lover
CANCELLED! - REP
Honey - Lover
The Life of a Showgirl - Midnights