Last Friday, the pop megastar Taylor Swift released her 12th original album, The Life of a Showgirl. The record covers themes of love, hatred, and the challenges associated with life in the spotlight. But is it actually any good?
Full disclosure, I prefer rock and heavy metal music over pop music. The genre absolutely has a place on the radio, and I don’t dislike pop music as a whole, but there is a disappointing lack of guitar solos. That being said, The Life of a Showgirl is an overall solid pop record, even managing to bring a good amount of groove to a mostly mellow record.
Tracks like “Cancelled!” and “Father Figure” bring a very welcome, darker sound that is an enjoyable contrast to the more melancholy “The Fate of Ophelia” or “Eldest Daughter.” There were a few more upbeat tracks, like “Opalite” and “Wood,” but generally this isn’t a happy record.
The production quality is immaculate. It’s very clear to me, even as someone largely unfamiliar with Swift, that she hires the best of the best when it comes to her team. The composition of the instruments works well: they didn’t sound very unique,, but they really didn’t need to be. They served their purpose of assisting Swift’s voice well.
The mixing is also incredibly well done. There’s quite a few instrument tracks playing at any given moment, but the tracks never seemed to clash or step on one another.I’m less fond of the vocals—generally preferring the more pronounced and passionate singing of her earlier work—but the near-whisper that many of the songs are performed in was clearly a stylistic choice.
The lower singing definitely fits the darker subjects, but it would have been nice to see more of Swift’s impressive vocal range.
The album is very cohesive, almost edging into concept album territory. There doesn’t seem to be a specific overarching storyline—such as those in the classic concept albums of Tommy or The Black Parade—but there is an undeniable thematic throughline of the dark side of show business and Swift’s struggles through them.
A fair number of the tracks were less memorable, with most of the potential hits coming from the first half. I have no doubt that I’ll hear “Opalite” on the radio soon, and I’ve already seen several covers of “Eldest Daughter” pop up, but songs like “Ruin the Friendship” are more likely to stay somewhat obscure, at least beyond the fanbase.
I wouldn’t call any of these less catchy songs filler, per se; they clearly had a lot of work put into them, but they simply don’t carry the toe-tapping or tear-jerking capacity that some of the stronger songs do.
Many of the songs are pretty explicit, which, as someone who’s last exposure to Swift was “Blank Space,” I found somewhat shocking. Particularly the uncensored versions of tracks like “Father Figure” and “Wood” are never making it to the radio.
Overall, I found the production to be of an incredibly high quality and I am very impressed with Swift’s team; however, I found some of her lyrical and vocal choices to be questionable. The Life of a Showgirl is a decent pop record, but nothing sensational. I’m sure that the Swifties will make the album popular amongst themselves, but I doubt it will reach mass appeal like other recent pop smash-hits.
