Album Review: The Life Of A Showgirl by Taylor Swift

An album that has everything and nothing all at once When I first heard Taylor Swift sing, it was at a county fair. She was not an international superstar, but merely a young woman trying to get her name out in the months leading up to what would become her self-titled debut album. I remember purchasing Taylor Swift somewhat reluctantly, because while I wasn't a fan of country music back at that time, there was something genuine about her that I found completely disarming.

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Swift's reunion with Max Martin and Shellback was pitched as a return to hit-making form, and in a vacuum, those names still carry weight. But on Showgirl, they sometimes feel more like a coat of varnish than structural support. To be fair, though, that leaves Swift's songwriting centre stage, and there's no denying many of these tracks demand repeat listens; however, it's an album that may struggle to pull many back in with the same emotional urgency as The Tortured Poets Department or Folklore.

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While it's more likely hubris than an attempt to pull one over on us, it's not unreasonable to think that maybe Swift, in her panopticon-level diligence, has read everything written about her music becoming more commodity than art; that her brand has become so inundated with a Marvel Cinematic Universe of lore that only diehards could have any investment; that, despite her strange engagement with it during The Tortured Poets Department album cycle, she's progressed beyond the need for music criticism. Yet here I am, still desperate to believe there's value in this. And better yet, that the value outweighs the risks.

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In a 2014 Rolling Stone cover story, Taylor Swift described passing a man on the street who, inexplicably, walked around with a cat on his head. She wanted to take a picture, but hesitated: “What if he just wants to walk around with a cat on his head, and not have his picture taken all day?” The singer-songwriter offered sympathy because she is a massive celebrity, photographed every time she leaves home. Aside from romantic love, Swift‘s own fame has been the main subject of her work.

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Is the world ready for Taylor Swift, utterly untortured poet? Possibly — it’s not as if a whole season’s worth of NFL television cutaways didn’t prime the planet for the idea that Dark Taylor might be ready to take five for a bit. And, sure, the Eras Tour went a little way toward that, too, as no one’s idea of an angst-ridden experience. But not everyone has gotten past the original line on her, that she is someone who professionally mines heartache for hits.

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The release of the twelfth studio album by global powerhouse Taylor Swift was always destined to spark divisive debate. In its first few hours alone, 'The Life Of A Showgirl' spawned accusations of uncreativity, unsubtlety (namely regarding some choice words on fiancé Travis Kelce's manhood), and unsporting conduct, (re-)igniting as it has a lyrical feud with British cult treasure Charli xcx (via what is arguably the best melody on the record). Held tightly under wraps for fear of leaks, nothing had prepared the world for some of the album's more unexpected trysts.

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Taylor Swift - consummate showgirl that she is – is fresh off the press from the most immense tour in musical history, yet is still capable of heading straight back into the studio. That larger-than-life, omnipresent presence colours 'The Life Of A Showgir l' – Swift’s twelfth studio album – a sometimes luminous, sometimes laboured listening experience that lacks the sharpness of her previous efforts. Opening track, 'The Fate Of Ophelia', pulses on piano keys before storming in with crunchy bass lines blended with organ, for a sultry take on the noughties funk-pop revival.

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After the mess, the mop-up. That's one way to understand Taylor Swift's new album, "The Life of a Showgirl," on which music's biggest star offers up a dozen precision-cut pop songs just 18 months removed from last year's sprawling and emotionally unstable "The Tortured Poets Department. " That earlier LP, which contained 16 tracks before Swift expanded it with 15 more, was perhaps the most divisive of the singer's two-decade-long career; it racked up bonkers sales and streaming numbers, of course -- at this point, she's truly too big to fail -- but its mixed reception among tastemakers and even some fans seemed to rattle Swift, who for all her alertness to the brutality of being a woman in the public eye has become accustomed to a certain level of idolatry.

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Taylor Swift has always complicated notions of authenticity, which is often used as a benchmark for greatness but also as a cudgel against female singer-songwriters in ways that are less about poptimism versus rockism than about upholding cultural structures based on oppression. Authenticity has rarely been applied to experiences of a teenage girl: In the mainstream country space where Swift was operating, it was reserved for the likes of Jamey Johnson and Eric Church and occasionally Miranda Lambert. But Swift invited her growing fanbase to trace autobiographical details through every lyric and Easter egg to such an extent that it was impossible to argue that her persona was anything less than authentic.

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