On Oct. 3, 2025, Taylor Swift released her highly anticipated and 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” to eager and dedicated fans. As midnight struck, Spotify glitched as millions attempted to log on and stream her new songs. The album that promised to deliver a glitz-and-glam, Vegas persona, however, did not live up to expectations. There does not seem to be anything particularly show-stopping in Swift’s latest album, and it unfortunately fell flat for even dedicated Swifties.
The biggest complaint about the album many share is the lack of Swift’s signature lyricism typically seen in her albums. The most obvious dip in lyricism is perhaps in the fifth track, “Eldest Daughter”. There seems to be too much of a reliance on pop culture buzz words, including savage, trolling, memes, and comments. This takes the listener out of the emotional ballad that deals with Swift’s engagement to football star, Travis Kelce.
This trend of buzz-word lyricism continues later on in the album with “CANCELLED!” In this song, Swift references girl-bossing and repeats Gucci in her chorus. The use of these terms makes the song seem like a desperate plea to connect to pop-culture, which is confusing considering Swift is automatically connected in everything she does. The song also seems out of touch as Swift sings about only wanting to be friends with cancelled people, and in a constantly politically charged world, this message leaves a bad taste in some listeners’ mouths.
The music production of this album, though catchy, does not stand out from other Swift albums. Every song sounds relatively similar to each other, and at times the whole album blends together into one long pop song. This is a disappointment considering the lead up and promotion of this album was all about the glamorous Vegas showgirl life. An album whose promo consisted of endless old-Hollywood inspired photoshoots, ultimately just consisted of generic pop sounds.
Not everything about this album is negative, however. “Opalite” is a catchy, upbeat song that contains a part of the aesthetic Swift seemed to be going for in this release. It is certainly not her best song, but it is an easy listen compared to some other songs in this album. “Ruin the Friendship” is another stand-out, but it does not seem to fit with the rest of the songs on this album. The track discusses a high school sweetheart that never was due to both Swift’s fear of tarnishing their relationship and the unfortunate death of the classmate. The song, though a moving insight on past loves, is out of place on an album mostly dedicated to her fiance and her power in pop culture.
“The Life of a Showgirl” is not the worst album to be written, but it certainly is not the best. The album is a disappointment for fans who wanted a new happy-and-in-love album similar to ones Swift has released before. Listeners instead were given a generic and out-of-touch sounding track list, and this release definitely marks a change in Swift’s approach to music.
It seems that this album is proof that money and sales are more important to the artist right now, but hopefully this trend of Travis Kelce-obsessed songs will eventually fade. “The Life of a Showgirl” is certainly not Swift’s best work, and does not stand out in any way other than disappointing ways.
–Oct. 28, 2025–
