Taylor Swifts ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ is not good

I feel the need to put a brief aside at the top of this post, because I'm sure to a lot of people me once again disliking Taylor Swift's new record could wade me into some mildly contentious waters. On my blog, I always made my tagline 'fearless music reviews' because I felt like I needed somewhere to throw my honest opinions out. As much as I am extremely grateful and humbled to know that my friends and loved ones read this (thanks for sticking around for over 100 posts of me chatting my shit) I similarly want to feel free to express my opinions honestly and as 'fearlessly' as possible - without any apprehension to potentially rustle other peoples feathers. This blog has always been more of a way to document how I'm feeling about things, and not to gain traction or be purposefully contentious for the sake of a couple of clicks. I know that I'll never be one to dismiss someone's music taste, whatever you like, you like, and if we don't agree on that, then that's cool with me. Let's both be able to express our opinions in a space of openness and honesty, and not allow other people's enjoyment of things impact how we ourselves enjoy and interact with art that rings true for us.

With that - I feel I have to also say I have nothing against Ms Swift, or her music on a base level. When I listen to records outside of my comfort zone, I always try to be objective to my own taste as well as the wider zeitgeist, and listen all the way through so I can give myself every option to really sink my teeth into a project. What I write is my honest feeling, regardless of the individual in question, and focus in on the music at the core of it. Anything else happening in the cultural orbit of said person is considered mildly superfluous, including questions of identity, fame, fandom etcetera etcetera - I know that sounds obvious, and is quite frankly the bear minimum when it comes to things like this, but once again, I feel like I need to stipulate it nonetheless. All good? All on the same page? Brilliant.

On October 3rd, Taylor Swift released her brand new project, The Life of a Showgirl. A record focused around her experiences on her last tour, as well as her well documented romance with Travis Kelce, it took on its own glitzy and glamourous aesthetic, and had fans truly riled up for it's release. After her previous project fell rather flat for me, I can't say I was falling over with anticipation, but I also wasn't going to write it off completely - this new record deserves as fighting a chance as any, and here are my thoughts;

When listening to this record, the derelict simplicity of it all was the first thing that started to grind on me. After my complaints about the full, synth pop landscape of 'The Tortured Poets Department' - put together by Jack Antonoff, it seems this record has gone the complete opposite direction. Mixes are often bland, consisting of three or so tracks, vocals along with a drum machine and some synths - and if there are any other instruments, they fly so painfully under the surface they don't even matter. Furthermore, the drums often sound flat, or just overwhelming, seemingly with no in between, lacking any real depth or sonic texture. The songs seem intent to revolve around repetitive grooves, with pretty uninspired melodies that lack the dynamism I really enjoyed in her previous works.

There are also a lot of different styles thrown into this record - some beats sounding more soul oriented, funky Niall Rogers - esque cuts, R&B style hefty beats with smashing bass - but none of them are given enough time to really let Swift settle into them. When you're constantly trying to hit all these different elements in a record that's only just over 40 minutes, it tends to make it feel a little all over the place. I respect the choice to experiment, but at least give these sonic identities some more room to breathe than a hardly 4 minute stab before blasting into something that's sonically different - it seems to lack cohesion.

Once again, I deeply feel the lyrical misfires on this record - even more strongly than I did from her last effort. There are awfully polarizing moments of lyricism on this one that genuinely made me have visceral reactions to, namely 'did you girlboss too close to the sun' or 'everybody's so punk on the internet [...] every jokes just trolling and memes'. It honestly feels like she's trying to put her fingers on the pulse of current pop phenoms who create songs that are lyrically poignant, but instead showing some unexpected immaturity that really does not suit her. She attempts to maybe come across nonchalant regarding drama, but also drops lyrics about caring a lot about things she claims not to want to engage with - or tries framing herself as some worldwide bleeding heart, when actually it just sounds out of touch from someone at her level - I'm pretty sure a multi-award winning successful artist who has topped charts and charters private jets doesn't really live in an 'underworld', but I digress. Words like 'legitly' are thrown around, and when she tries to make those cheeky sexually charged entendre similar to that of Sabrina Carpenter, it just comes across strange - maybe I'm just not used to it, but maybe it also just comes across as odd uncomfortable imitation. And, worst of all, she tries to make an entire song aptly named 'Wood' that is littered with some genuinely awful references to Killa Trav's dong... tough listen.

There are things I did enjoy from this record however - some of the songs are pretty catchy, and are genuine ear worms. They're succinct, poppy, and easy to listen to. 'Father Figure' - an interpolation of the George Michael track of the same name has some swing to it, and even I found myself humming it absent minded after I listened. In the moments where the production perks up, it feels good, and you get a real glimpse into what this record could have been had it been given a little more sprucing up - a clean sounding anthemic collection of tracks that really reflect her life in the limelight. It is something artists have done before, and when it decides to make missteps like it has, how does this record set itself apart from the rest of the pack? That little guitar part in 'Wood'? Awesome! The tone is there, it's shiny and dynamic, but things like that can't just be used as a crutch, and when it's not built on so you get the most out of it, why have it there in the first place?

I think this record is much more palatable when you're not really paying much attention to it. As harsh as it sounds, when you're not picking it apart, or expecting anything of it, The Life of a Showgirl gives you 40 minutes of clean, and mostly inoffensive pop music. It'll probably be good to dance to in a club setting, and I can see a lot of it's appeal in being background music to soundtrack people's lives. However, in saying that, this record has really split the fandom down the middle. Some fans are quick to defend this new record, praising it's experimental tone and new avenues treaded, others are uploading videos of them crying at release parties because it's not what they were expecting, and sending back their physical copies due to the record being nothing like they'd hoped. It's a polarizing project for everyone, and that divisive nature is rife within this release.

I'll also say that once again, the marketing of this record, as well as the now 34 strong variants, is insanely excessive. In a world where overconsumption is rife and marketing teams know how to make you hand over your money, having so many variants of the album, whether that be physical vinyl variants or digital versions with added tracks or voicemails, having more than a few feels extremely excessive. Plus, when around 15 of these versions were only sold for a matter of days before being vaulted forever - it creates a pretty violent culture of supply and demand that exploits fans FOMO and weaponizes it to their own advantage. Bands are doing this a lot at the moment (yes I'm also looking at you TOP and your 21 variants of Breach) and it's getting harder and harder to justify, with mass vinyl manufacturing becoming more and more impactful on our environment. It's over the top, and when it's this violent, it makes you think that this is more of a move to dominate the charts on physical sales. But I suppose when it comes to the charts, you really are voting with your wallets more than anything else - as sad as it seems. It comes across as calculated, cold, and simply to push up numbers instead of enabling fans to get a hold of the music itself.

In conclusion, in my head, this is one of Taylor Swift's trickiest projects to date. Suffering from it's own lack of dynamism, clunky and oftentimes downright immature lyrics, and a promise of sparkly glitz and glamour that was seriously undelivered, I have to hold my hands up and say this really isn't my cup of tea. It's a record of promises squandered, and a feeble attempt at nonchalance over themes that clearly are more at the forefront of her song writing than ever before. As an artist who presents all her records as a continuation of her own personal growth, a journey spanning three odd decades of song writing, this album is so devoid of theme and yet has been marketed so violently to the masses...it all feels a little backwards. Obviously, I am not using this misfire to try and discredit Swift completely. Although this record is culturally off the mark by a long shot in my books, it by no means is grounds for tarnishing her vast and mostly brilliant legacy, it's just that these last two bodies of work have really not done it for me. Maybe as she goes on into her 13th era, we'll see something new, something a little more captivating - but we will have to wait and see. For now, I doubt I'll be picking this album back up, and hope to see something with a little more staying power next time around.