If there’s one thing I know well, it’s how to ruin my phone’s limited storage space. And most recently, I did just that by recording hours of reaction footage to the announcement of Taylor Swift’s newest album “The Life of a Showgirl.”
On Aug. 11 at promptly 9:12 p.m., my phone filled up 10 minutes of storage while I watched a cryptic countdown online, constantly reloading my browser to the point of insanity. Finally, I was met with the announcement of Swift’s 12th studio album: “The Life of a Showgirl.”
The album dropped on Oct. 3 to worldwide fanfare. Although I was a bit hesitant about the album at first — I mean, how could I ever relate to being a showgirl when my biggest fear is whether I’m participating enough in English — I ended up falling in love with the album at first listen.
Like the rest of her discography, Swift set up multiple Easter eggs before the release with lyrics in different U.S. cities; this rollout included new exclusive experiences like an event with Spotify in New York and album release parties in movie theaters.
Musically, “The Life of a Showgirl” is dramatically different from Swift’s most recent releases such as “Midnights” and “The Tortured Poets Department.” The album is produced by the duo Max Martin and Shellback, whom she last collaborated with in 2017. Unsurprisingly, the new album fits in with much of her older pop music. At 35, Swift is now engaged to football star Travis Kelce; she refers to the album as coming “from the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place” in her life.
On the first listen, I focused on the beats and instrumentation and was enchanted by most of the songs, a feeling I usually don’t get with Swift’s albums.
I did have trouble differentiating the feel of some of the songs, but on later listens they quickly got stuck in my ear. The songs are full of “glitter gel pen” lyrics, a style of writing that she categorizes as fun, pop and carefree songs.
After digesting the songs with more listens, I’ve found my lyrical and sonic favorites. “Actually Romantic,” “Ruin the Friendship,” “Elizabeth Taylor” and “CANCELLED” stand out the most.
Online, the album has been criticized for its “weak” lyricism, with critics singling out “basic lyrics” such as “every joke’s just trolling and memes” or “but I’m not a bad b*tch and this isn’t savage” from “Eldest Daughter.”
Although the lyrics do not have as much emotional depth as her past albums like “Folklore” or “The Tortured Poets Department,” it seems obvious to me these critics are honing in on singular lyrics that do not represent the entirety of the album.
In the same criticized songs, Swift utilizes her classic poetic skills through lines like “your thoughtless ambition sparked the ignition on foolish decisions” and “shimmers that innocent light back like when we were young” to convey the imagery and storyline of the songs.
On the topic of storylines, what hooks me again and again to Swift’s songs are the narrative she weaves in through her lyrics. I particularly love “The Fate of Ophelia,” which traces the story of Ophelia’s descent into madness and death in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and her positive spin on the story in the song. In my own life, I connect the most with “Father Figure,” which follows the story of a young ingénue learning from a mentor before their relationship slowly grows into competition.
Two days after the release I attended the release party at my local theater as well. Along with more than 50 other Swifties, my friends and I sang along with each and every lyric video. Swift also went over the songwriting process and story of each song which was so nice to see her perspective (and also felt as though I had English class two days in a row.)
And it seems just like me, millions of others have enjoyed the album. On the album’s release date, the album became the most pre-saved album in Spotify history, broke Spotify’s 2025 Single-Day Streaming Record and had the most vinyl album copies sold in a single week. And most importantly, the album set the record of debuting with over 4 million album units, greatly surpassing Adele’s “25,” with 3.482 million units back in 2015.
I rate “The Life of a Showgirl” 5 out of 5 Falcons. The diversity in storylines and sonically genius lyrics make “The Life of a Showgirl” one of my favorite Taylor Swift albums.
