The Life Of A Showgirl

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What’s a girl gonna do after the record-smashing Eras Tour? Well, its success sparked the flame inside Taylor Swift that led to a reunion with former collaborators Max Martin and Shellback for her 12th full-length <i>The Life of a Showgirl</i>. Indeed, in a very showgirl manner, Swift flew back and forth to Sweden between stops on her European leg—remember, the singer-songwriter believes “jet lag is a choice”—to join Martin and Shellback, Swift’s co-writers and producers on some of the most memorable and popular hits of her career (“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” “22,” “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” “Don’t Blame Me,” and “Delicate,” to name a few). The result? A confident, dazzling, at times elegant, at times cheeky, at times sensual pop explosion that examines Swift’s relationships and her fame, which is both deeply personal yet extremely relatable...mostly. (The struggles of “Elizabeth Taylor”—with its thumping rock vibes—can understandably be reserved for the uber-famous showgirls in the room.) “This album, by personality, was a funnier album,” she tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “It was coming off of <i>TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT</i>—the character attributes I was highlighting in that writing process were much more serious and sensitive and introspective, and oftentimes more earnest and stoic, and the characteristics of a poet. This one was like, showgirls are mischievou, fun, scandalou, sexy, fun, flirty, hilariou.” On the album’s first single “The Fate of Ophelia,” Swift tests that theory by dipping back into the Shakespearean well that earned her crossover success and adoring fan, and once again, she turns the Bard’s tale into a romance rather than a tragedy. But this time, it’s more mature and fierce—as the acceptant heroine resigns herself to solitude before the hero ever comes around: “I swore my loyalty to me, myself, and I/Right before you lit my sky up.” Her muse, of course, will be well-dissected. The aforementioned savior in “Ophelia” is most likely Swift’s husband-to-be, the three-time Super Bowl champion Travis Kelce. (She did, after all, announce the album on his podcast.) And he <i>probably</i> has a few more cuts dedicated to him—the most direct being the saucy, ’70s-funk-infused “Wood” and its “new heights of manhood” revelation. “When I met Travi, I started to feel a little bit like I could be like a person who could have romantic whims and have these dream,” she say. “Actually Romantic,” with its semi-stripped-down production, deals not with a lover but with a certain hater. “You think I’m tacky, baby/Stop talking dirty to me/It sounded nasty but it feels like you’re flirting with me/I mind my busine, God’s my witness that I don’t provoke it/It’s kind of making me wet,” Swift tease. And “Father Figure” pays homage to George Michael with Swift’s breathy vocal, ending with a menacing act of betrayal by a protégé: “You made a deal with this devil/Turns out my dick’s bigger/You want a fight, you found it/I got the place surrounded.” Importantly, though, remove Swift’s own personal inspirations and score-settling and you get what she does best: vibrant songs that speak to universal emotions through her storytelling. The buoyant “Opalite” shows two people finding each other at the right time; baroque-pop “Wi$h Li$t” portrays someone who knows what her heart desire. And “Eldest Daughter,” the famous track 5—generally one of Swift’s most vulnerable on each of her albums—reveals a promise of devotion. Swift ends the record on its title track, an epic duet with Sabrina Carpenter where the women volley back and forth about a girl named Kitty, perhaps alluding to their own places in the world. “And all the headshots on the walls of the dance hall are of the bitches who wish I’d hurry up and die/But I’m immortal now, baby doll, I couldn’t if I tried,” Swift sings proudly. In other word, as she’s proven time and time again, she’ll never go out of style. .

via Apple Music

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