It’s a Bop- Alex L. 

October 3rd, 2025. An ordinary day for ordinary people. But not for Swifties. At midnight, Taylor Swift released her latest and long-awaited album, titled The Life of a Showgirl.

I personally like this album, because it’s so different from her previous album, The Tortured Poets Department. It’s not as sad and melancholy; it’s not as brooding and gloomy. After Swift’s dysfunctional and incompatible relationships with Matt Healy, Jake Gyllenhaal, and other unmentionables, it’s nice to see that she’s finally in a relationship where she can be authentically herself and happy, and this album emulates that. 

It would be an understatement to say that The Life of a Showgirl was just successful. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart and took the top 12 spots on the Billboard Hot 100. In the first week of its release, it sold 3.4 million albums and 4 million album total equivalent units. On its first day, 2.7 million copies were sold, and it shattered the record for most vinyl sales in a week, with 1.3 million, surpassing her own previous record. Key reasons for its success were the The Life of a Showgirl release watch party in theaters, multiple vinyl variants being made, a big online and global promotional campaign, and the official announcement of its release taking place on Travis Kelce’s podcast, New Heights, with all of the details fans wanted to know.

With its success, of course, comes criticism. The Life of a Showgirl is arguably one of her most criticized albums, because of the cliché and “cringy” figurative language that Swift uses in her lyrics: an example being: “Every joke’s just trolling and memes,” from “Eldest Daughter.” Haters argue that the songs are superficial and lacking depth, but truly, the main reason is the lyrics. Her lyrics now incorporate online slang, like “fire”, “memes,” “savage,” the list goes on, further backing up the idea that Swift is still a teenager and her songs are “cringy” and irrelevant. 

I would consider myself a Swiftie, and I agree. However, I think that her choice of words is just satire, and that’s the point she’s trying to convey. Yes, Life of a Showgirl isn’t exactly the most insightful, eye-opening, deep, thoughtful, and meaningful album, but that’s not the point. Swift has already given her fans those kinds of albums, with Folklore, Evermore, and Midnights. I think that not every album needs to have depth to be considered good, or even great. Swift still uses her storytelling skills and her capabilities as an artist to drop us into a moment and tell a story that is enthralling and captivating, if not making up for the lack of depth and detail. 

My favorite song is “Ruin the Friendship.” It tells the story of how a best friend from high school, Jeff Lang, whom Swift had romantic feelings for, stays in her memory after tragically committing suicide at the age of 21. The song takes us back to her side of the story, and this song really shows her storytelling capabilities in a way that reminds me of her past songs. The vivid imagery, the theme of regret, heartbreak, and what could’ve been, the bridge, and the closing: “My advice is always ruin the friendship..Better that than regret it for all time” really make it a great song. Swift handles the topic of Lang’s death so delicately and artistically that it doesn’t weigh the song down. The lyric: “Your girlfriend was away…” adds to the song in a you-belong-with-me-kind-of-way. And it leaves me thinking: “I really hope that this doesn’t happen to me, and that 20 years later I won’t still be thinking about it.” So as she says, always answer the question, and that’s better than asking it all your life.  

I was excited to see that the 5th song on the album was named “Eldest Daughter”. I was hoping for a song that really captures what it’s like to be an eldest daughter: the struggles and the greatness of it. I thought it would be like one of her songs from her album Folklore and be an eldest daughter anthem. The song does attempt to embody the vision. I can see what she’s trying to convey: “Every eldest daughter was the first lamb to the slaughter..”, but the execution was not the best simply because it wasn’t clear. “Eldest Daughter” combines two ideas: one, the cruelty of social media and being kind, and the eldest daughter experience, but it seemed like more of a growing up and childhood experience, and two, the bridge didn’t take these ideas across, so I didn’t really get the whole idea. 

The 3rd song on the tracklist, “Opalite”, is the gem of the album. Shiny opals, bold turquoise, and an upbeat rhythm and lyrics make it one of the best songs. This is definitely my second favorite, because it has a catchy beat, clever lyrics such as: “I had a bad habit of missing lovers past… my brother used to call it eating out of the trash,” and an optimistic theme, that even when life gets you down, the only thing to do is get back up. My favorite lyrics are: “This is just a storm inside a teacup” and “You were dancing through the lightning strikes…Sleepless in the onyx night…But now the sky is opalite.” This song tells us that through all of her tribulations, Swift is now happy and has changed her mindset on life and love. The connection to Travis Kelce, with opal being his birthstone and the sky described as opalite because of him, and more details, is a reference that isn’t obvious and makes it all the more meaningful. 

It’s a Flop– Lynn M.

In the early morning of October 3rd, every teenage girl I knew, AirPods connected, was talking about Taylor’s new album release. Swifties and Haters alike mainly agreed, “It was meh.” 

So what about Taylor’s new album didn’t hit? Why were people, some previously huge fans, not impressed by her latest release? 

I think it comes down to a lack of substance. People are used to hearing Taylor’s songs and finding themselves engrossed in a story, a part of the songwriter’s life and soul, that they themselves can relate to on some level. Many songs in Life of a Showgirl just don’t have this depth. 

The main song, and one that was a part of every conversation I heard about Taylor Swift after the release, that comes to mind is “Wood”. This song really turned many fans off with its subject matter. In the words of many people I’ve talked to, “I don’t want to hear about all that!” 

In my opinion, it’s one thing to make a song about how in love you are, about how much you love your life, even in the eyes of the public. I just don’t think many Swifties caught the vibe the song was going for, myself included. Although, I can appreciate it for its standalone value. The lyrics are clever, the beat and music itself are catchy, but I think that’s about all of its good qualities, and they’re heavily outweighed. 

However, not every song on this album was lacking in what fans were looking for. 

One of my favorite songs from the album was actually the opening track. “The Fate of Ophelia” was a song riddled with artistic expression and a warm underlying theme of being emotionally saved by someone you love. I absolutely loved the music video that went along with the song. The references to Millais’ painting, the simplicity of the choreography paired with its symbolism, were all just beautifully done.  

I didn’t find another song I liked on the album until the third track. While “Elizabeth Taylor” held an in-depth meaning and a clever reference to a scandalous actress, a reference playing on the theme of the album, I just didn’t really like the rhythm of the song. I found it kind of hard to sit down and enjoy listening to. 

“Opalite,” on the other hand, had very different qualities. I really liked the melody of this song; it had a nice vibe to the whole thing, and it’s definitely something you can listen to and enjoy. I would even say this would be a good song to sing along to, akin to some of her old songs like “Blank Space” and “Delicate”. But I also liked that this song had a different tone than her previous eras. I liked how it was almost an ode to her relationship with Travis Kelce. I found the connection between his birthstone (opalite) and the sky becoming this bright, happy thing a very sweet gesture. This is the kind of classic- feeling love song I think a lot of Swifties want to hear. 

The next few songs on the track, “Father Figure” and “Eldest Daughter,” included, lacked the kind of catchy composition that I would expect from a pop album. “Eldest Daughter” in particular felt very all over the place with an overall bad rhythm to it. It was very hard to follow with themes that seemed to muddle together, ruining the overall message of the song. “Ruin the Friendship” earned the album a few more points back for its heartstring-catching inspiration and storytelling lyrics, a classic Taylor Swift technique. In contrast, “Actually Romantic” felt a little bit out of place to me on this album. I feel like a Charli XCX diss track is more appropriate for something like a single, a release that could have more of a punch. “Wi$h Li$t” also fell a little flat with me, although its message seems to get the album back on track to its theme of having a relationship in the public eye. 

“CANCELLED!” was an odd song for me to listen to. It had horribly cringeworthy lyrics, even for a song that could be satire. I mean, “Did you girl-boss too close to the sun?” Seriously!? This isn’t 2021 anymore. The cliches throughout the entire thing didn’t do much for the song either. If it was meant to be this way, that decision should’ve been reconsidered. The song could’ve held a lot more power if the lyrics were something fans wouldn’t be embarrassed to sing a along to.

On the other hand, “Honey” was a song I really appreciated. The beat was catchy; I felt as if I could sing to it if I really got to know the lyrics. And the message behind the song was something I had thought of myself but never really heard put into song– the idea that passive-aggressive terms women are often called, like honey or sweetheart, could have a different connotation and new meaning altogether when coming from the right person, someone who truly loves you. 

The Life of a Showgirl didn’t really end with a bang, but a mild wrap-up, to say the least. The ending track, sharing a name with the album, held no special meaning for me and didn’t really leave me thinking either. Featuring Sabrina Carpenter was a nice touch; however, I wish you could actually hear her sing on the track. The only voice really heard is Taylor’s, so the whole thing felt less like a collab and more like a song with Sabrina as a backup singer. 

Overall, I can see why so many fans were disappointed, and I find myself agreeing with them. It could have been a much more cohesive album and lyrically written with much better taste. Speaking as a person who isn’t much of a Taylor Swift fan, but as someone who appreciates good art, the few good songs on The Life of a Showgirl do not make this album art-worthy.  

What do you think of The Life of a Showgirl? We want to hear your opinions, so let us know in the comments!