The era of the showgirl begins after the tortured poet stops

By Mahjabin Rahman

When Taylor appeared on the New Heights podcast with Jason and Travis on August 13th, she practically glowed with happiness and then she made all of us jump from our seats by announcing her 12th studio album The Life of a Showgirl which was released on 3rd October.

The last time we checked she had dropped an entire anthology The Tortured Poets Department with 31 tracks in it. The entire album was filled with songs that were expressing heartbreak and the misery of letting go with songs like ‘So Long, London’ and ‘LOML’. Also there were tracks like ‘I Can Do It With A Broken Heart’ and ‘Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me’ that had the haters and critics eat their own words.

Then 18 months later we get The Life of a Showgirl, which is completely opposite of the grayscale world of the previous album. It’s vibrant and fun, on top of that it has that carefree vibe to it.

Photo Source: parade.com

This seems like a new era for Taylor’s music journey, where she is done carrying the weight of her old albums and showing her new carefree era to the world. The album was conceived during the Eras Tour, while she was performing on stage regularly hence the title of the album does make sense. She worked with hitmakers Max Martin and Shellback for this album. The album has twelve tracks in it and when she shared the tracklist via her instagram we all took a moment to read the names because they were very, very interesting.

The first track and the only single from the album is ‘The Fate of Ophelia’. What comes to mind when we see this? Yeah, the famous character of Shakespeare, Ophelia right? I personally thought this would be a sad song considering the story of Ophelia but Taylor who always likes to surprise her fans by doing something unpredictable, she turned this song as a symbol of being nearly saved by someone’s love and escaping the fate of Ophelia. She sang ‘You dug me out of my grave and saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia’.

And this is not the only misleading title from the album. ‘Ruin the Friendship’ is a song that we all thought would be something about some fallout of Taylor’s celebrity friendships but turns out this is a song where she remembered her late friend Jeff Lang. And on the other hand the songs like ‘Actually Romantic’ and ‘CANCELLED’ are where she decided to make her power move and get back to her rivals and haters. If CANCELLED had sister songs then it would be ‘Bad Blood’ from the 1989 album and ‘I Did Something Bad’ from the Reputation album. And if you hear ‘Actually Romantic’ then it’s so vivid that it is a satire. She is lyrically mocking a certain someone just like she did in her song ‘This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things’ previously which is also from the Reputation album.

When we are talking about Taylor and her songs, how come we won’t be talking about the muse behind the album? No, that cannot happen right? Obviously we know the muse is her now fiance Travis Kelce and the songs ‘Opalite’, ‘Wi$h Li$t’, ‘Honey’ and ‘Wood’ are inspired by him in the album. But it is ‘Wood’ that is perhaps the most audacious and carefree statement of all. Shedding all metaphors, this track is an unapologetically flirty and suggestive ode to her partner. With direct references to his podcast, New Heights, and the unforgettable line about his ‘magic wand,’ it stands out as one of the most confident, sexy, and playfully explicit songs she has ever released.

‘Father Figue’ and ‘Eldest Daughter’ are two songs where Taylor shows vulnerability but also makes the statement that even if the world does not do its part to protect you, you will have yourself to do that. ‘Father Figure’ feels like a haunting confession that is layered with vulnerability and defiance. The sister song for ‘Father Figure’ would definitely be ‘The Man’ from the Lover album. That song also portrays her desire to be the man that she had needed others to be but they failed her so now she, herself is being the man she needs. And ‘Eldest Daughter’ carries the quiet ache of responsibility. It’s tender, melancholic, and almost painfully self-aware, like a letter written to the version of herself who had to grow up too fast. All the eldest daughters will be able to relate to this song for sure.

Then comes another standout track, ‘Elizabeth Taylor’. This is the very first song that kind of hooked me up on the first listen. In this track, Taylor symbolically reaches out to the legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor, asking her about love and resilience, because Elizabeth is one of the most famous heroines from the early 1940’s but also infamous for having 8 husbands in her lifetime. And since Taylor is also always criticised for having a bit too many boyfriends and here she embraces the parallel with wit and self-awareness, almost seeking advice from a woman who was also criticised for having too many husbands. The concept is fascinating, and the rhythm is perfectly on point.

On the very last track of this album comes the star collaboration between Taylor and Sabrina Carpenter on the song ‘The Life of A Showgirl’. Initially it would seem like this is a song about her own life but when you actually pay attention to the lyrics that’s when you notice that it has some hints of some interaction that happened years ago between Taylor and Britney Spears, it’s a song where she admires those who put themselves on stage and perform for an audience and how it might seem very sparkly from this but to them it can be a bit dark. All the fans were super excited about this collaboration.

I said this is a new era for Taylor because we see a lot of contradictory lyrics in many songs. She is a lyrical genius who shares her feelings through her words and melody. So in the song ‘Florida’ from The Tortured Poets Department she sang “Well, me and my ghosts, we had a hell of a time”, in ‘Opalite’ she sings ‘I thought my house was haunted, I used to live with ghosts’. This clearly says how she had the weights’ from her past as a constant companion but now she is free from those. She is now in a good mental state and that really reflects on her work. And as a long time fan, I’m really enjoying this new Taylor.

We already knew this album would be a massive commercial success after all, Taylor is a global phenomenon, and everything she touches turns into a hit. But even then, it managed to surpass every expectation, breaking her own records. All twelve tracks were on the Billboard top chart without letting any other song be on that chart. It also gave her the 15th #1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Now, as a long-time Swiftie, if you ask me if I liked this album or not then my instant answer would not be “Ohhhh! I loved it”, no I won’t say that. Rather I would say “This album would need time to sink in before I become a freak for all these songs”. Because this is how things are with Taylor. She drops something that is her artistry and it takes us some time to get that. And it is not only me who is saying that, fans around the world kinda questioning her choice of releasing this album after TTPD and to address this Taylor said in an interview that “this is the fun about show business. That if you are talking about my album on its release week then my work is already a success”. Well to think that she is an artist and also a very clever business woman, her strategy is kind of on point.

Also seeing how we fans reacted when Reputation came out in 2017 right after her pop album 1989, this reaction from fans or critics is nothing new for her or for us. At that time a lot of her own fans could not take that she literally switched her entire vibe and showed something new. So these comments and shifts are a regular thing in our fandom and we really like this. It kinda tells us that we can be versatile and still be judged by others for it, well that’s what life is all about and mother Taylor is trying to teach us that.