Ella Skye Heisel | Contributing Illustrator

Taylor Swift’s brand-new pop album “The Life of a Showgirl,” released Oct. 3, is disappointing. That is not to say that the album is without merit, but throughout “The Life of a Showgirl,” Swift prioritizes sparkly production that hides a critical lack of lyrical depth. From 2012’s country-pop album “Red” to 2020’s folk-pop album “folklore,” Swift’s best work has been characterized by detailed lyrics and complex metaphors, and when that is stripped away on “Showgirl,” the fun beats of these songs can only do so much.

For the third time in a row, Swift is credited as both a songwriter and a producer on this album. Her work as a producer ensures this is uniquely her voice, as it demonstrates her involvement in both the writing of all the songs and the recording and after-effects applied, such as the mixing of the instruments and creating the final sound of each song. The album tries to distance itself from her previous work, but, by straying away from the relaxed percussive sound of last year’s “The Tortured Poets Department” and the synth-based pop of 2022’s “Midnights,” it just ends up somewhere neutral, identity-less, and verging on boring for a number of songs.

The opening track, “The Fate of Ophelia,” perfectly encapsulates this sonic-lyrical divide within the album. Taking its name from the character from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” Swift somewhat clumsily flattens Ophelia’s life into a metaphor, telling a story of Swift being saved from loneliness by a successful relationship. Her vocals shine here with a fun chorus, but the lyrics struggle to fit together into something compelling. Even though the track is entertaining at the surface level, a closer look reveals a weaker foundation in the lyrics. When Swift sings “pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes,” it feels like a weak attempt to bring in sports metaphors and her fiancé, Travis Kelce. Many of the lyrics on the album struggle to fit together into something entirely consistent and stay merely surface-level. 

Producers Max Martin and Shellback helped create some of Swift’s biggest hits, including “Bad Blood” and “Shake It Off” off of her 2014 album “1989.” They return for “Showgirl,” providing some excellent downbeats and catchy song hooks. That is especially true for the following two tracks which are “smart” pop songs, supporting their memorable choruses with strong lyricism. 

In the second track, “Elizabeth Taylor,” Swift sings about the pitfalls of being in a celebrity relationship. While the premise may sound distant, the song tells a relatable story of past connections failing, but how this time things are different. Before the first chorus, Swift writes, “All the right guys promised they’d stay / Under bright lights, they withered away / But you bloom.” The song’s foundation is built on a cathartic bass drop at the start of each thrilling chorus that makes you feel just as confident and sought-after as Swift herself. 

The third track, “Opalite,” shines as one of the best tracks from the album with its bright and exciting pop sound. Here, Swift brings in a drum and a bass guitar that provide a poppy, light feeling that characterizes the joy she experiences in a successful relationship. Her staccato singing makes the chorus magical: “You were dancing through the lightning strikes / Sleepless in the onyx night / But now the sky is opalite!” The bridge is a lot of fun, too, as she builds layers of the word “love” in harmony.

A couple of tracks off of “The Life of a Showgirl” have Swift drift into a more explicitly romantic and suggestive tone, which works perfectly for the album’s toned-down production and coy lyricism.

The raunchy fourth track, “Father Figure,” has Swift use paternal metaphors as a means of protecting the person she’s in a relationship with: “Just step into my office / I dry your tears with my sleeve, leave it with me / I protect the family.” Here, that subdued production helps build a seductive atmosphere in all the best ways. Thematically consistent lyrics, a strong beat, and a fun bridge make “Father Figure” cute yet engaging, which is what the rest of the album tries to capture. 

“Wood” is a similarly bright, amusing song. It is dense with double entendres from the song’s coy hook, “his love was the key that opened my thighs.” Every verse is full of these, from “New Heights of manhood,” referencing her fiancé Travis Kelce’s football podcast, to a wedding joke, “Girls, I don’t need to catch a bouquet to know a hard rock is on the way.” The song is enjoyable and clever, especially when diving into the lyrics. 

These two tracks bring forward some of the best parts of the album, even if they are the naughtiest, while some other tracks, such as “Eldest Daughter,” struggle with too-weak lyricism and some, such as “Actually Romantic,” suffer from flat production.

Swift consistently writes the fifth track of her albums to be her most devastating (think “All Too Well,” “You’re On Your Own Kid,” or “tolerate it”), but here, “Eldest Daughter” is just frustrating. It contains a few of the best lyrics and thematic ideas on the album, “Pretty soon I learned cautious discretion / When your first crush crushes something kind,” but also some of her worst lines: “Every joke’s just trolling and memes, sad as it seems, apathy is hot.” When Swift sings “Everybody’s cutthroat in the comments / Every single hot take is cold as ice,” she tries to tell a story of fame and how the internet can be a merciless place, but it lands somewhere insincere at best and absurd at worst. 

The same issues plague “Wi$h Li$t,” when Swift writes about the life she aspires to have with her partner. The main chorus has her idealizing that life: “I just want you / Have a couple kids got the whole block looking like you.” However, those same weak lyrics continue here when she rebukes others’ perceptions of how she should be acting: “They want those bright lights and Balenci’ shades / They want that fat ass and a baby face / They want it all.” Through purposefully controversial lyrics, Swift attempts to demonstrate the ridiculous expectations placed on her and other female artists, but her argument is weakened by the flippancy of the lines. The song as a whole is also not very sonically distinct due to the electronic percussive backing that is repetitive and ultimately drifts into something a little boring.

Those merely adequate lyrics continue on “CANCELLED!,” the third-to-last track on “The Life of a Showgirl.” In the song, Swift discusses being okay with criticism, singing, “It’s easy to love you when you’re popular … But one single drop and you’re off the roster.” The lyrics here are so cliché that they must be on purpose, such as “Did you girl-boss too close to the sun?” or “I like ‘em dripped in Gucci and in scandal.” The lines are laughable at face value, even when trying to accept that Swift is attempting to be ironic. The track feels similar and even a little inferior to her own “I Did Something Bad” from her 2017 album “Reputation.”

These songs where Swift tries to be edgy, or, at best, purposefully cringey, exemplify the worst of her lyricism on “Showgirl.” When the songs emphasize these lines like they are powerful statements or “gotcha” moments, it feels hollow and separates the listener from Swift’s argument instead of crafting a powerful argument or compelling song. 

Unfortunately, the title track, featuring Sabrina Carpenter, features some of the clunkiest lyrics on the album. Carpenter sings “Her father whored around like all men did / Her mother took pills and played tennis” which, to the listener, sounds extremely odd. Swift’s verse is not much better, where she sings, “They gave her the keys to this city /Then they said she didn’t do it legitly.” This playful tone does not ultimately work when the song is trying to be a serious rejection of the romanticization of fame. However, the double-time claps that provide the backbone of the bridge are a great choice. 

There is nothing wrong with accepting “The Life of a Showgirl” at a surface level and returning to its best tracks, but Swift has created better. Her 2014 smash hit “1989” has more consistent and interesting pop tracks while her 2020 masterpiece “evermore” demonstrates the peak of her lyricism. 

There is a lot to appreciate in “The Life of a Showgirl,” but it is just not worth fighting to find something great when there are far better albums out there, especially from Swift herself. Despite sparkly production and several fun hooks, the consistently weak lyrics unfortunately prevent the album from achieving anything aside from intermittently deep.