On Aug. 12, 2025, Taylor Swift announced her twelfth studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” on a podcast hosted by her fiancé, Travis Kelce, and his brother, Jason, called “New Heights.”
Released on Oct. 3, 2025, “The Life of a Showgirl” is her shortest album since “Taylor Swift,” her 2006 debut—and arguably the worst.
With overly sexual lyrics, flat, unoriginal beats and shallow themes, the album truly expresses Swift’s new identity as an NFL wife. “Have a couple kids, got the whole block looking like you / Got me dreaming about a driveway with a basketball hoop,” from the song “Wi$h Li$t” is a prime example.
Her creative songwriting, which made her famous, is nowhere to be found in these songs. Instead, we see a Taylor Swift that is centering her music around the pleasure her fiance has been giving her—and not in a romantic way. No, we’re not kidding.
Many listeners have noticed a clear lack of originality in the album. The title track, “The Life of a Showgirl (feat. Sabrina Carpenter)” follows the same melody as “Cool” by Jonas Brothers. “Wood” is also very similar to “I Want You Back” by The Jackson 5.
“Father Figure” tells the all-too-common story of an older, more powerful man getting into a relationship with a young girl, except from the perspective of the man. Despite the song’s serious nature, lyrics like “I can make deals with the devil because my dick’s bigger” make it feel comedic and insensitive.
Swift has released multiple songs centered around this topic but they hold a stark contrast to “Father Figure.” Going from lyrically phenomenal ballads like “All Too Well,” “Dear John” and “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” on previous albums to this song feels like a cruel joke.
In “Wood,” Swift’s writing hits an all-time low. The song is full of sexual innuendos that make no effort to be discreet. It’s shallow, vulgar and frankly, outrageous, especially when you consider the many young children who listen to her music, and even look up to her.
Lines like “his love was the key that opened my thighs,” and “forgive me, it sounds cocky, he ah-matized me and opened my eyes,” stick out like a sore thumb, especially compared to her more poetic approaches to love and physicality in her other albums. Songs like “Dress” from “reputation” and “False God” from “Lover” are good examples.
“Eldest Daughter” is the notorious track five. Songs that are placed fifth in Swift’s albums are often the most vulnerable and personal to her. It has high standards to live up to, as other track fives include emotional songs like “Dear John,” “All Too Well” and “tolerate it.”
Unfortunately, “Eldest Daughter” does not live up to these expectations.
The first verse includes phrases like “trolling,” “memes,” and “hot take,” which immediately takes the listener out of the song. It feels simultaneously dated and modern, an unpleasant combination. The first two lines of the chorus, “But I’m not a bad bitch / and this isn’t savage,” are so cringe that they truly cement the song as a failure.
“CANCELLED!” sees Swift’s return to her edgier, vengeful style, found in albums like “Reputation” and songs like “Vigilante Shit” and “Bad Blood.”
Though this style worked for select tracks, the lyrics and production of this one fell so short that the song ends up sounding like a cheap, painful imitation of her former self—a parody of sorts.
Lyrics like “did you girlboss too close to the sun?” “good thing I like my friends cancelled” and “bring a tiny violin to a knife fight” truly make the song feel like a laughable mess of failed metaphors and Millenial-cringe.
It’s also important to note that the friends Swift refers to in “CANCELLED!”, Blake Lively and Brittany Mahomes, have not been “cancelled” for nothing, like the song makes it out to be. Lively faced backlash for her tone-deaf approach to promoting her movie about domestic violence along with past clips, which are now resurfacing, showing behaviors that might be found in a typical high school mean-girl’s diary. Mahomes dealt with controversy after liking posts by Donald Trump on Instagram and spraying champagne over rival football fans. Her loyalty to her friends, despite their negative public opinions does not come off as noble. Instead it comes off as insensitive and potentially problematic.
It’s not all doom and gloom. There are some songs that lean more mediocre instead of outright childish or embarrassing.
“The Fate of Ophelia,” the opening track, is catchy and fun, though the way she describes Ophelia’s story in the song (as a damsel in distress) seems like a bit of a misinterpretation. “Opalite” has a fun beat and more interesting lyrics than some of the other songs on this album.
The problem with most of the songs is that they honestly have potential. It’s the lackluster production and poor lyric quality that messes the whole album up.
Taylor Swift is proof that music can be fun and upbeat without sacrificing quality or lyricism. Albums like “1989”, “reputation” and “Fearless” showcase this. This makes “The Life of a Showgirl” all the worse.
Overall, the album is a fail. There are hardly any redeeming qualities — it isn’t even enjoyable to listen to. As Taylor Swift fans, we are just disappointed.
