On Friday, October 3rd, Taylor Swift released her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl. Along with it, she released a movie that includes all the songs and the behind-the-scenes of making the album. It is unlike any other album she has released, and a lot of fans aren’t sure how to process it. Swift is known for her more “depressing” albums, such as her last one, The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD). But this new one is what fans call a “glitter gel pen” album. With a supposed seven happy love songs for her fiancé, Travis Kelce, on this album, fans wonder if Swift is finally happy with her life.
Produced alongside Max Martin and Shellback, Swift stated in an Instagram post that she is very proud of this album. Both producers are Swedish, bringing a different vibe to the album that contrasts with anything she has released before. While some fans say it reminds them of past albums like 1989 and reputation, it still has its own unique beat to it.
A lot of fans are disappointed that it is not a sad album, though. Some wish that it sounded more like the line in “Elizabeth Taylor,” the second track in the album: “oftentimes it doesn’t feel so glamorous to be me.” While this could have been another great, sad album, most fans believe that she needed to switch it up because TTPD was so long and “depressing.”
What the album really portrays is what her life is like “behind the curtains.” When she announced the new album on Travis Kelce’s podcast, New Heights, she stated that she filmed the album while on tour and wanted to give the public a piece of what her life was like then. In “Wi$h Li$t,” the eighth track on the album, she lists out the things she wants in the future, specifically to “settle down.” The new album could also be a way to say that after she gets married and has kids, her career could slow down (but not end), which could be sooner rather than later, as she is 35 years old.
Swift is known for dropping a lot of easter eggs before releasing an album, too. As she has said in multiple interviews, she enjoys watching her fans try to figure things out, even if some of their speculations are a little wild.
Even after the album had been released, fans believed that she was still dropping hints. On October 4th, when you Googled Taylor Swift, a flaming heart appeared on the screen, and when you continued clicking on it, 12 scrambled city names popped up with 12 orange doors. Orange doors popped up in said cities with QR codes on the doors. Each QR code linked to an AI YouTube video, each with a different scene. The videos also included certain letters and images that represent some of her other songs. Fans were quick to decipher what the videos spelled out, ultimately figuring out that it was just a YouTube Challenge, not even affiliated with Swift at all. It ended up being a lyric video for the lead single “The Fate of Ophelia,” and many fans were disappointed.
Overall, the love for this album seems to be developing slowly. It has taken fans multiple listens to really get into it. But, like every other album, some people hate it at first and then develop a love for it after it has been out a while.
And then there are the people who are never happy with what she releases, no matter what. For TTPD, they say she was “too depressed.” But now, she is “too happy.” In her song “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” from TTPD, she sings about the crowd always chanting for more, which loops back to the main question: Is Swift finally happy with what she does?
