Back in August, Taylor Swift joined her then-boyfriend — now-fiancé — Travis Kelce on his New Heights podcast to announce her 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl.” The record hit streaming services and store shelves on Friday.
While not a particularly innovative or poetic work in the singer’s catalogue, “The Life of a Showgirl” is an improvement on her recent pop sound. And Swift’s music is danceable again.
The record opens with the lead single “The Fate of Ophelia,” a track on which Swift strikes pop gold. With a driving synth and an earworm chorus, it’s a punchier version of “Fortnight,” the lead single of “The Tortured Poets Department” — that was a bit too subdued.
Thematically, “The Fate of Ophelia” references Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet,” specifically the character Ophelia, who drowned after being driven mad by grief. Swift sings that her lover has “saved [her] heart” from this fate.
Like the first track, most of the album’s other sweet spots also happen to be about her love life. The upbeat and glittery “Opalite” describes the feeling of finally finding the right person, and the lush but more laid-back “Wi$h Li$t” sees Swift yearning for domesticity with her partner.
On “Wood,” Swift references Kelce’s podcast by name and uses a seemingly endless number of sexual innuendos. With its disco-inspired sound, this track would be right at home on Sabrina Carpenter’s newest album, “Man’s Best Friend.”
Carpenter is actually featured on the record’s title track and closer, where she and Swift sing of how aspiring stars often have unrealistic ideas about the glamor of show business. Other than the clever concert noise included at the end, this track is rather unremarkable.
Like the title track, the other disappointing moments on the album tend to be songs where Swift dwells on the trials and tribulations of fame. “Elizabeth Taylor” opens with Swift singing the track’s namesake as if it were a producer tag, which is a bit jarring. “CANCELLED!” uses outdated millennial lingo, like “Did you girl-boss too close to the sun?”
And on “Actually Romantic,” believed by some to be a Charli XCX diss track, Swift sings, “It’s precious, adorable like a toy chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse; that’s how much it hurts.” What?
None of the other tracks — except perhaps “Ruin The Friendship,” a sweet ode to a teenage love that could have been — show Swift at her lyrical best, but that’s okay when the songs are strong in other areas.
Unfortunately, the tracks about fame tend to have both cringeworthy lyrics and forgettable melodies. Furthermore, it’s difficult to sympathize with Swift after she’s remained the world’s pop darling ever since the Eras Tour.
“At least you know exactly who your friends are, they’re the ones with matching scars,” she sings on “CANCELLED!” Lyrics like these don’t have the same effect as they did on the 2017 album “Reputation,” where they addressed current and legitimate backlash she was receiving. But it’s not 2017 anymore.
One last standout track is “Father Figure,” which gives George Michael a songwriting credit. On this song, Swift approaches the topic of her fame from a fresher angle. It recalls the exploration of gender and power dynamics on “The Man,” from Swift’s 2019 album “Lover.”
Here she appears to step into the role of a man in power: “I can make deals with the devil because my dick’s bigger.” But perhaps Swift is referencing herself — after all, she probably does “pay the check” extremely quickly, and she arguably does have an “empire” that “belongs to [her].” Sonically, “Father Figure” excels with dreamy production, lush harmonies and a pleasantly surprising key change.
Ultimately, “The Life of a Showgirl” has a fairly even mix of highs and lows — much like the lifestyle after which the album is named.
Swift may not have stepped very far out of her comfort zone with this one, but perhaps that’s okay. She’s already reinvented herself countless times. And we may not ever see another “1989,” or — even less likely — another “folklore,” but that can be okay, too.
If Swift can be trusted to continue crafting good pop songs, we might as well welcome them — that skill is already a pretty big feat.
