{"id":9116,"date":"2025-10-20T20:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T00:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/?p=9116"},"modified":"2025-10-21T17:00:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T21:00:22","slug":"taylor-swift-the-life-of-a-showgirl-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/2025\/10\/20\/taylor-swift-the-life-of-a-showgirl-album-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift: The Life of a Showgirl Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a>On October 3<sup>rd<\/sup>, Taylor Swift released her 12<sup>th<\/sup> album titled \u201cThe Life of a Showgirl\u201d. While initial reviews award Taylor\u2019s newest album five stars, there has also been expressions from devoted fans describing the album as underwhelming especially considering the lyrical depth of past albums. Through this review we can dive deeper into the genre, song rankings, and overall opinions.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Opening Number<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While many fans are questioning the lyrical depth of \u201cThe Life of a Showgirl\u201d, comparing it to \u201cThe Tortured Poets Department\u201d may be too drastic of a comparison. TLOAS seems like a celebration album to Swift after recently closing The Eras Tour, buying back her music, and being newly engaged to NFL chief\u2019s player, Travis Kelce. This album is the era showcasing her happiness, confidence, and creativity. Through the orange color scheme, listeners get a brighter vibe already. Recognizing these details is a good reminder that even though it may not be as poetic as a past album, it can be refreshing for fans to have a new catchy pop album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Encore Moments<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout the 12 brand new songs, the top three standout tracks for me were Elizabeth Taylor, Ruin the Friendship, and Father Figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elizabeth Taylor is the second song featured on \u201cThe Life of a Showgirl\u201d and has been referenced in a past Swift song titled \u201cReady for It\u201d. Elizabeth Taylor was a famous actress known for her active love life which led to a lot of media scrutiny. Through this song we can explore and understand more of how Taylor deals with fame and having relationships in the public eye. Personally, I believe this song had a lot of strategic parallels that show Swift\u2019s creativity. Using Elizabeth Taylor\u2019s legacy to reflect on her own displays how clever the song truly is as she isn\u2019t just mentioning the actress but using her as a symbol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRuin the Friendship\u201d was another standout track for me. This song reflects on a friendship from Swift\u2019s high school years that sadly passed away. We explore the feelings of loss, regret, and how Taylor never truly expressed her feelings for this person. While this song carries emotional weight, I believe having a deep song like this really can give fans an insider perspective on Swift\u2019s feelings. At the end of the song, Swift encourages others to not make the mistakes she made which I think adds depth to the song and was a good way to close out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The last standout track was \u201cFather Figure\u201d. \u201cFather Figure\u201d explores the dynamics of power, relationships, and betrayal. Swift molds into this masculine power figure that demands more from an artist which mirrors her own perspective of the music Industry. I think this song is inspired by her former boss, Scott Borchetta, which again is another well-crafted symbol as she embodies her experience in the song. Overall, the use of metaphors and the narrative shift really elevate this song which made it stand out to me. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Backstage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Swift mentioned each of the 12 songs feel like you can choose your own adventure. As a listener I agree with this statement as she was able to blend modern references with almost Shakespeare storytelling that made the whole album fun. Even though each song has its positive aspects, I don\u2019t know if I would consider each song to be perfect. A song that sadly did not stand out for me was \u201cThe Eldest Daughter\u201d. \u201cThe Eldest Daughter\u201d was a track 5 which for Taylor Swift albums tend to be the most vulnerable song. Although this song felt personal towards her, it did not have the same effect as her past track 5\u2019s as the song felt like it lacked story-telling due to the phrases she used that some fans even went to describe as \u201ccringy\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Closing Curtain<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Listening to \u201cThe Life of a Showgirl\u201d was such a unique way to get insight on what Swift has felt through different experiences of her life. Whether she is presenting a show with songs like \u201cOpilate\u201d and \u201cThe Fate of Ophelia\u201d or taking us behind the scenes with songs such as \u201cCANCELLED\u201d and \u201cRuin the Friendship\u201d the entire album was easy to make us step into her shoes. While this album may not be at the top of rankings, I still think this showcased Swifts impressive creativity with making music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On October 3rd, Taylor Swift released her 12th album titled \u201cThe Life of a Showgirl\u201d. While initial reviews award Taylor\u2019s newest album five stars, there has also been expressions from devoted fans describing the album as underwhelming especially considering the lyrical depth of past albums. Through this review we can dive deeper into the genre, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":9201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-opinions","8":"entry"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2025\/10\/jpeg.jpeg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2025\/10\/jpeg.jpeg","author_info":{"display_name":"Ava Gauld","author_link":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/author\/ava-gauld\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}