Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” reveals the artist’s most sparkling — and, paradoxically, most grounded — self yet.
The album contains neon-lit expressions of love, ambition and vulnerability, creating something messier and freer than she ever has before. It embraces a more theatrical sound, reminiscent of her earlier works like “Reputation” and “1989.”
Musically, this is one of Swift’s most experimental albums yet. Many fans online have noticed that some of the background tracks sound familiar — possibly a nod to the history of music and other “showgirls” that have come before her. She stitches together a musical sound that’s nostalgic while being unique in its own right.
In her lyrics, Swift seems aware of the legacy she’s building for herself. She nods to her own music history with familiar sounds, like “Wi$h Li$t” having the same sensuality as “Style” and “Opalite” having the bass pulse of “1989” mixed with “Midnights.”
The artist even samples some of her old songs, like “I Did Something Bad” and “Glitch,” throughout the album. Every song resembles a popular contemporary track while simultaneously resembling something from her own discography. This is extremely on-brand for an artist who is undoubtedly aware of the world she crafts within her music, crafting an ongoing dialogue between past and present self.
Swift said in an interview with Hits Radio that the album “matches the moment that I’m in,” describing it as a “complete and total snapshot,” of her life behind the scenes of her Eras tour.
At its core, the album is about the spectacle between showgirl and self — it captures what it costs to build a public persona onstage and how love and identity knot themselves around that performance.
The album starts strong with “The Fate of Ophelia,” a song that reimagines the classic tale with a modern twist and glittering synth line. Swift expresses gratitude for not suffering the fate of Shakespeare’s drowned character.
“Late one night, you dug me out of my grave and saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia,” she sings, spinning the tragic tale into a hopeful story. Swift knows the water is there, but she’s learned how to swim in it, with her fiancé football player, Travis Kelce, at her side.
The cover art mirrors that tension perfectly. Shot in sparkling sliver, water almost up to her face, Swift is depicted surviving drowning in madness, an ode to the famous John Everett Millais painting. It’s glamorous and tragic simultaneously, outlining themes of survival, defiance and spectacle.
Swift has figured herself out, and it’s clear in the album she’s proud of where she’s landed, her deep sense of identity defiantly gushing through every song.
She’s no longer apologizing for the spectacle, but creating it on her own musically versatile terms, especially in songs like “Elizabeth Taylor,” where she relates to living amongst the chaos and scandal of Hollywood life. She sings, “You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby,” as a “Reputation”-coded bass drops at the chorus.
She continues with the experimental sound at the middle of the album with “Wood,” where she sings “His love was the key that opened my thighs,” in what might be her boldest moment yet. It’s a witty, innuendo-packed 2 and a half minutes, usually unheard of for Swift. It comes off as cheeky and vulnerable at the same time.
The album ends with the title track featuring Sabrina Carpenter. The song brings the same kind of excitement as a Broadway musical track, incorporating audio from Swift’s Eras tour farewell.
“I’ll never know another/pain hidden by lipstick and lace,” they sing, highlighting the chaos of the music industry.
Swift fills this album with the fun, playful feeling of 1989, mixed with the lyrics and beat of Reputation.
Perhaps this is why, for better or worse, the album leaves the poetic feeling of “The Tortured Poets Department” in the past.
The overall feel of the album is surely a mixed one, thematically one of Swift’s less cohesive and more experimental releases. The lyricism is less poetic, reflecting a deliberate shift toward playfulness — Swift seems to just be having fun with each song, rather than aiming for another lyrical masterpiece.
“The Life of a Showgirl” may be a fun listen, but it remains packed with vulnerability and freeness, each song more revealing than the next, giving listeners an inside look into the artist’s life as she experiments with a new sound and lyricism style.
Contact Swasthi Maharaj at smaharaj@thealligator.org. Follow her on X at @s_maharaj1611.
Swasthi is the Fall 2025 university administration reporter. She's previously worked as general assignment reporter with The Alligator, and you can also find her work in Rowdy Magazine or The Florida Finibus. When she's not staring at her laptop screen or a textbook, she's probably taking a long walk or at a yoga class.
