ELLE
After six consecutive albums produced by Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift has left behind the bleakness of her past few albums for a more vibrant album, produced by pop mastermind Max Martin. Instead of a mega project worthy of the biggest pop star on the planet, The Life of a Showgirl coughs and sounds more like a half-hearted effort from what should be a collaboration of some of the greatest producers and songwriters of the past few decades.
Following the pattern of her past few albums shattering seemingly every record, Swift has done it again, breaking the record for most album units sold in a week in the United States. She also broke the record for most streams of one song in a single day with the lead single “The Fate of Ophelia.”
The album does not live up to the hype that breaking such records should entail. Swift’s songwriting has taken a dive from the guttural, personal confessions of her past few albums. Her lyrical schemes sound awkward and forced (at one point, rhyming Kitty/witty/city/legitly), to the point of parody. While part of Swift’s mindset seems to be towards making a brighter pop album that doesn’t invite deep discussion like her other work, The Life of a Showgirl ultimately fails at entertaining.
The album’s production doesn’t highlight her songwriting and makes the album only slightly less dull than the average Antonoff track. Martin has been able to reinvent his sound to match the pop music of the times, but muted trap beats and songs that rip off the Pixies’ hit “Where Is My Mind” sound more like a desperate grab than a reinvention. Most of the album takes in so many different influences to make music that’s just entertaining and inoffensive enough that you won’t change the radio station.
Occasionally, Swift delivers a powerful lyric or catchy melody, but they’re rather few and far between, aside from her rewriting of Shakespeare with the contrastingly strong song “The Fate of Ophelia.” “Ophelia” is one of her best songs in recent memory, a reflection of the imperial period of her career where she climbed to the peak of celebrity. While Swift isn’t fading away to obscurity anytime soon, she will likely never see the zeitgest like she did during the Eras Tour.
In general, this album is a huge letdown. Swift’s made pop music for the sake of pop music before, but The Life of a Showgirl sounds like her attempt to cash in a paycheck from a rabid fanbase.