Taylor Swift’s brand new album, “The Life of a Showgirl” is many things. Unfortunately, good is not one of them. This album has left many of her fans, including myself, disappointed in a way that sparks frustration. We have been left wondering why Taylor Swift has just released the most soulless music of her career.
Taylor Swift is a deservingly successful singer-songwriter, credited for her lyricism and record-breaking music releases. Over the years, anything Swift releases is often labeled as innovative and matchless. And without fail, year after year, she’s been praised with numerous awards, glamorized by the media and worshipped by fans. Recently though, following the underwhelming rollout and release of her album, there has been a flip with critics and even die-hard fans.
Firstly, even though Taylor’s so-called “strongsuit” is lyricism, her latest album falls short in that area. “Compared to her other records, this one stands out as ingenuine and weak. Some songs may be fun, but they have no meaning or depth” LTHS sophomore Sophia DalPonte claims.The writing included on these songs feels less intelligent and almost forced when in comparison to her other work. Many of the lyrics such as “Girlbossed too close to the sun” or “That was f*****g lit” come across as cringey and lack the depth fans have come to expect from her. This shift coming shortly after her most lyrically heavy album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” stunned fans who admired her for her thoughtful storytelling writing style.
Apart from sounding out of tune, fans have also started to realize that the billionaire has rapidly become out of touch with not only her audience, but also the world. The issue here is that in order to create good art, you have to be in touch with humanity, which she isn’t.
The entirety of the album lacks rawness and realness due to her disconnect from the majority of the population’s real-life problems. The emptiness and lack of human substance allows it to be evident that on this album, Swift attempted to create art that was meant to resonate with audiences of people, but because she doesn’t truly share those same experiences she claims other do of “dreaming of living in luxury,” she continuously misses the mark by writing about wishing for a house in the suburbs with a basketball hoop. From lyrics romanticizing half the world’s day to day life to singing about being stuck in a fame prison, Taylor Swift’s brand of relatability crumbles as she shows fans that she isn’t one of us.
Just when the album couldn’t get any worse, Taylor delivers a track titled, “Actually Romantic,” which started a feud between her and the renowned pop star, Charli xcx, stating that it is actually romantic how obsessed Charli is with her. Taylor titling this track “Actually Romantic” is not only a response to Charli’s “Everything thing is romantic,” but the song in general digs at the topics Charli discusses in her song “sympathy is a knife,” which are her feelings of insecurity that she endures while surrounded by other artists such as Taylor. Why Swift thought it would be a good idea to come after Charli xcx is something fans will never understand, but what they do know is that it left a sour taste in their mouths.
Apart from everything discussed, “The Life of a Showgirl” has a completely different sound from the aesthetic that was promoted and failed to add anything valuable to Taylor Swift’s discography. Even Taylor herself failed to properly promote her music while doing press, and instead talked about how luxe the packaging for her physical copies are. Fans are beginning to fear that the once called “It Girl” isn’t really with it anymore, and is rather just trying to sell something. 2025 has been a year full of disappointing blockbuster pop albums, and Taylor Swift has just released the worst one yet.
