Taylor Swift is a singer who needs no introduction. From her record-breaking album releases to her smash-hit Eras Tour, it is undeniable that Swift has become one of the biggest worldwide celebrities in history. However, being at the top comes at the risk of a greater fall. With the release of Swift’s new album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” fans are witnessing her tumble down at an alarming rate. This album has been majorly criticized, and for good reason.
I have been listening to Swift my entire life. I attended The Eras Tour. I own almost all of her CDs, and I even have posters of her covering my wall. However, even I cannot defend this project from the reviews it has been receiving.
The main problem with “The Life of a Showgirl” is Swift’s lack of creative lyricism. Swift became known for her skill as a writer after releasing her more poetic projects in recent years, such as her albums “Folklore” and “Evermore.” Her ability to convey experiences and emotions through beautiful metaphors and unique wording has always been her best quality, so fans were left wondering where it went when she was producing this album.
The most prominent example of Swift’s decline in writing in this album is the song “Wood.” Personally, it sounded like a knock-off Sabrina Carpenter track. For the past two or three years, Carpenter has become known for her witty, flirtatious lyrics, and it seems like “Wood” is Swift’s attempt at replicating this lyricism. Instead of clever innuendos, this song just had awkward lyrics, and to be honest, it was too much information.
Perhaps the most upsetting song was her fifth track, “Eldest Daughter.” In this song, Swift sings about how she never saw herself being as happy in a relationship as she is now. Swift has a tradition of making her most vulnerable and honest songs the fifth track on her albums, so fans expected something personal from this song. However, it missed the mark. This song had potential. The idea of reflecting on her past experiences and fears of marriage is a beautiful concept for a song, but when Swift mixes in phrases like “trolling and memes” and “we looked fire,” it takes listeners out of the song completely and makes it hard to connect with the words.
Another problem with this album is that it sounded nothing like what it was promoted as. Swift did not release any singles from the album, so fans had no idea what the album would sound like. They had to use the pictures she gave us on social media to piece together an idea. The images she used to promote her album were what one would expect from the title: pictures of Swift dressed up as a showgirl with flapper outfits and fancy feather headpieces. Naturally, fans assumed the album would go along with those themes with a jazzy, 1920s-esque sound. However, what was received was a cheesy, boring and unoriginal pop album.
Some fans are arguing with critics of the album by using the defense that people only enjoy Swift’s songs when they are sad, slow songs about her past breakups, but that could not be further from the truth. Swift has an entire album titled “Lover” full of songs about being happy in a relationship while also showcasing that she can still bring creative lyrics to the table. “1989” is one of her most successful albums and is composed only of upbeat pop songs, but they still have lyrics with depth. Swift has shown before that she can be in a good place while also making good songs. The songs in “The Life of a Showgirl” are simply not well-written.
This album is proof that an artist should value quality over quantity. Instead of putting out an album every year, artists should take a few years to work on their music. Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” could have benefited from being worked on longer, and because of that, it appears as a rushed way to keep Swift’s name in the public eye for as long as possible. Fans would have still listened if it came out a year later; there was no reason to rush it out like this. Now, Swift’s reputation as an artist is permanently dented by this failure.
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