Taylor Swift- The Life of a Showgirl
Label: Republic
Producers: Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Shellback
As the world’s most dominant pop star rolls out her twelfth studio album, the stars of happiness seem as aligned as they’ve ever been for Taylor Swift. Personally, she’s finally engaged to NFL star, Travis Kelce, while professionally, this marks the first release she completed the world-conquering Eras tour, which established her as the most lucrative touring act of all time. Preceding album, The Tortured Poet’s Department, was released while the tour was still ongoing in the spring of 2024, but represented a stark contrast to the frenzied buzz of Eras and the romantic euphoria of her personal life, instead revealing itself to be her most obscure exercise in introspective songwriting. The project felt like one best reserved for her most die-hard followers, and despite scoring the same commercial heights of any Swift release, its identity as a non-bop factory left audiences famished for a full-blown pop outing from the superstar. Cue The Life of a Showgirl, which finds Swift replacing long-time producer Jack Antonoff with iconic pop scientists Max Martin (Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, co-writer on several “Shake It Off”-era Swift hits) and Shellback, and this results in her most flamboyantly and vibrantly pure pop record since at least 2019’s Lover, and truthfully, her 2014 behemoth, 1989. And the Swifties rejoice!
Showgirl is one of those pop albums that immediately feels loaded with potential smashes and memorable earworms. With only a dozen tracks, it easily ranks as Swift’s most concise release in eons, and while we may all appreciate the generous depths of her more prolific and bonus-track-laden releases, it’s incredible how refreshingly brisk and repeat-ready this record feels. Tracks like instant-hit title “The Fate of Opehlia” and “Opalite” are deliciously glitzy anthems, while more synth-oriented numbers like “Elizabeth Taylor”, “Father Figure” (which samples George Michael’s classic), and “Cancelled!” recall the R&B leanings of Midnights, but are far less moody and boast stronger hooks and more contagiously memorable melodies. Meanwhile, the incorporation of other genre influences provides a sonic variety that we haven’t heard from her since Lover, from the folky country of “Ruin the Friendship”, to the hilarious pop-punk kiss-off machinations of “Actually Romantic”, to the outright dirty and insatiable funk of “Wood”, which is sure to cause endless chatter as the most explicitly sexual song she’s ever released. Speaking of explicit raunch, she’s joined by current it-girl Sabrina Carpenter on the glossy title track. The pair keeps things clean on “Showgirl”, which allows the focus to remain on what a monumental pop moment their union clearly is, and feels all the more poetic given that Carpenter’s recent breakthrough was spearheaded by her role as an opener on Eras. It’s a fittingly sardonic but glamorous finale to an album that proves Swift is still at the peak of her pop powers, and while nowhere near being ready to pass the torch, is happy to share the stage with the successors that have risen in her wake.
And while this album is certainly not the lyricist’s pet-project that Tortured Poets was, that’s not to suggest that it still doesn’t display the depths of her unique gift as a songwriter. The aforementioned “Ruin the Friendship” particularly boasts her signature poetic storytelling, reflecting on a missed opportunity with a high-school suitor, an intriguing subject at this stage in her career given the tales of teen angst that launched her. “Eldest Daughter” also shines as one of the record’s more grippingly soulful moments, with its reflective but equally skeptical reaction to the unfair generational pressures that fall upon an oldest child.
These prove to be deep moments that give the record a solid balance. Ultimately however, The Life of a Showgirl smartly puts its primary focus on pop music anthemia, and leaves zero doubts that Taylor Swift still knows how to meld her clever songwriting, charismatic deliveries, and sonic instincts to deliver hit-making pop of the very highest order. This is one of her most effortlessly entertaining outings, and one that will undoubtedly be a pop-culture fixture for months, and probably years, to come. It’s precisely the type of album that both the pop scene in 2025, and the stylistic arc of her discography, needed her to release in the present moment.
Track Listing:
- “The Fate of Ophelia” (Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Shellback)
- “Elizabeth Taylor” (Swift, Martin, Shellback)
- “Opalite” (Swift, Martin, Shellback)
- “Father Figure” (Swift, Martin, Shellback, George Michael)
- “Eldest Daughter” (Swift, Martin, Shellback)
- “Ruin the Friendship” (Swift, Martin, Shellback)
- “Actually Romantic” (Swift, Martin, Shellback)
- “Wish List” (Swift, Martin, Shellback)
- “Wood” (Swift, Martin, Shellback)
- “Cancelled!” (Swift, Martin, Shellback)
- “Honey” (Swift, Martin, Shellback)
- “The Life of a Showgirl” featuring Sabrina Carpenter (Swift, Martin, Shellback)
The 706 
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