By Grace Holmes
The hour struck midnight on Oct. 3, and with the new day was the release of Taylor Swift’s 12th album: “The Life of a Showgirl.” While Swift has always been one for grand gestures and sparkly songs, she has been relatively quiet up until Aug. 12, when she revealed her new project. Additionally, the news was shared on her fiancé’s and brother-to-be’s podcast “New Heights Show.”
Swift of course has a creative eye and real talent for aesthetics. She loves her eras and seems to love even more her ability to chameleon into different personas. This is very much the case with her latest release. The album cover(s) are something to be said all on their own. The images are gaudy yet glamorous. She poses dramatically in feathers, sequins, and fishnets giving homage to showgirls first made popular in the Ziegfeld Follies and then later on in Las Vegas during the 1950s.
Not only is she creative, Swift is also a successful business woman who knows her price as well as her influence. In total there are 24 album variants. Buyers can expect to spend about $14.99 for cds and $34.99 for records. With that being said, many of the variations were sold during presale and are no longer available, one of which was exclusively sold between midnight and 1 a.m. on Oct. 3 in partnership with Target. According to an NPR report less than 100 tickets were given out of the 149 available in Kirkwood Mo., an intriguing number that seemed too low for Swift numbers.
Thankfully, I was not camped out at Target, and sat comfortably with a small group of friends while awaiting the release. Those friends were also willing to give me insight about their own thoughts on the release.
The album opened with “The Fate of Ophelia” and had me grooving in my seat. It was a typical love song that expressed gratitude to a lover who seemingly saved Swift. I always say, though, if I can move then it’s a win for me. The following tracks were okay with the song I was most looking forward to,“Father Figure,” considering Swift in a masculine role, rather than exploration of the artist’s sexuality as some listeners may have guessed.
Swift is a mastermind, she herself has explicitly claimed as much, and she loves playing mind games. This is why another song I really enjoyed just for the drama factor was “Actually Romantic.” Apparently there is beef between her and Charlie XCX, so… Swift decided to write a diss track. The rumors cannot be denied, or will be difficult to, as the closing lines are “(It’s so) romantic” which can directly be linked to Charlie XCX’s “Everything is Romantic” off of her 2024 Brat album.
Unfortunately the mixture of just okay songs and then “Wi$h Li$t,” “Wood” and “CANCELLED!” left me and my friends feeling very underwhelmed if not disappointed. “Why does it sound like AI wrote all her songs?,” Reese Riera, 21, my friend asked.
Additionally the album didn’t have any depth and if there was a message it was lost. In comparison to her previous album, “The Tortured Poets Society,” Aurora Vaidya, 23, of Allendale, also expressed how her lyrics were not to Taylor Swift standards. Oftentimes in response to any Swift slander, fans will counter others by claiming her to be a lyrical genius… but there was nothing special about her writing. In fact, it felt rather cheap and cringe. In “Eldest Daughter,” Swift said “Everybody’s so punk on the internet… joke’s just trolling and memes,” which might be an attempt at how harmful social media can be, but was just laughable.
Dakorray Wood, 20, and Khayvien Brown, 20, both of Allendale, made an argument about “Swift being all grown,” but I disagree. In fact the nature and sound of her tracks just felt more high school. Track 6, or “Ruin The Friendship,” harps on her almost-something with a boy from high school which feels weird since she’s very much 35-years-old and engaged to assumedly the love of her life… so why are we still discussing trivial matters of high school?
While my friend, Wood said “my foot was tapping a little bit” to “Honey,” a tap is not enough. The people want a stomp.
The closing track of the album “The Life of a Showgirl” featured Sabrina Carpenter. The track seemed to be Carpenter’s own pov as she grew into and eventually became a pop artist. This can be heard as the outro was taken from one of Swift’s Era’s Tour shows, Elana Harr, 20, of Allendale noted. While the song itself was fine when Carpenter belted the lines “They leave us for dead,” that seemed to stir the most emotion out of everyone in terms of talent.
I do agree with my friends’ thoughts and grievances. The album is a bummer and does not deserve the 100 that Rolling Stone reported. I think there’s multiple levels of disappointment. Swift’s writing was anything but poetic and the production and sound just wasn’t moving. I did not want to get up and dance until my stomach cramped nor did I want to lay in bed and lament on the injustices of life.
I personally do not claim the title of Swiftie but I am embarrassed for those who do. Despite knowing how bad the album is they’ll still love it, or support her merely because of their fanatic status.
