Is Taylor Swift out of hits? Showgirl puts her to the test

4 days ago 5

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It can be difficult to extricate Taylor Swift the person from Taylor Swift the musician. The megastar has deliberately engineered this blurring of the lines by inviting fans into her inner world for almost two decades, forging a parasocial connection between listener and artist. Fans will dissect every lyric; haters will do even more.

Swift’s 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl, will doubtlessly inspire countless headlines about her life this week and beyond. The record offers a peek into her romance with football player fiancé Travis Kelce – a relationship inseparable from this album, which was announced on his podcast, with an engagement following swiftly afterwards. Some tracks are wholesome (the starry-eyed, slightly regressive WI$H LI$T is an ode to suburban domesticity), some less so (Wood is not about trees). A bratty diss track aimed at a fellow pop star also reeks of mean-girl immaturity; there might not be any working it out on the remix.

But salacious gossip aside, is the album actually good?

One of the promotional images for Taylor Swift’s upcoming album, The Life of a Showgirl.

The Life of a Showgirl notably marks the return of Max Martin and Shellback, the Swedish pop masterminds who produced and co-wrote with Swift from 2012’s Red to 2017’s Reputation. Since then, Swift has worked extensively with Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, building a sonic palette that has, over time, come to feel predictable. I’d venture to say Swift’s last truly great record was 2020’s indie-inflected folklore, which heralded a new sonic and lyrical approach; her most recent album, 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department, was overstuffed and uneven.

Martin’s pedigree – including decades of hits from the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears to Katy Perry and Lady Gaga – is evident in the stronger earworms such as Opalite and Honey. Wood, questionable lyrics aside, could easily be a Carly Rae Jepsen track. These are decent pop songs, but they don’t hold a candle to Swift and Martin’s joint best, like 2014’s New Romantics.

Even Martin’s legendary skill doesn’t make this a great pop record. For the most part, most of Swift’s signature bridges are gone, which were often the most fascinating and creative aspect of her songwriting. Instead, these perfectly pleasant songs largely blend seamlessly into the broader musical landscape without much differentiation.

Lyrically, this is one of Swift’s weakest effort.

There are exceptions – Ruin the Friendship hints sonically at Swift’s country beginnings and is the strongest lyrically, tapping into the specificity that made her so beloved in the first place as she reflects on an almost-relationship from her youth. Father Figure interpolates George Michael’s 1987 song of the same name, offering a fresh twist on a familiar melody.

Swift’s flirtation with darker tones, both sonically and thematically, harks back to Reputation with varied results. Opener The Fate of Ophelia is one of the record’s better songs, beginning with a Folklore-esque piano and building upon an addictive bass bounce, coupled with dexterous, soaring vocals. But the melodramatic CANCELLED! is straight from the playbook of some of Swift’s worst tracks, such as Vigilante Shit; in the current political and social climate, its smugness feels tone-deaf.

Lyrically, this is one of Swift’s weakest efforts. “Please, God, bring me a best friend who I think is hot,” she sings on WIHLIT; on the title track, she rhymes “kitty” with “pretty,” “witty,” “city,” and… “legitly”? Elsewhere, needless verbosity jumbles her flow (“Your thoughtless ambition sparked the ignition on foolish decisions which led to misguided visions”). Swift contrasts her lower and higher vocal registers to lovely effect on Eldest Daughter, but the simplistic lyrics let the song down.

It’s almost a relief to hear Sabrina Carpenter’s voice in the playful closing title track. Carpenter is given proper feature treatment, unlike Post Malone or Lana Del Rey on past records. The two singers sound great together, and the track is more formally daring, with tempo and tone rapidly changing throughout. But it’s too little, too late by then. The Life of a Showgirl is a musically and thematically confused album – there’s a lot going on, but it never quite coheres.