On Friday, October 3, singer–songwriter Taylor Swift released her twelfth studio album, “The Life Of A Showgirl.” The album featured only twelve songs, in honor of the album being twelfth in her discography. “The Life of A Showgirl,” or TLOASG for short, is a complete shift from her last eras.
This new album featured poppy, happy music, and what she would call ‘glitter gel pen’ songs, which fans have had different reactions to. This album had immense publicity and excitement surrounding it before it was even released.
Taylor announced that she would be releasing a new album on August 12th, yet another ode to the twelve theming of this era. She has since released countless variants–vinyls–of the album, as well as signed CDs, with countdowns on her website.
All these drops have made some fans more excited for the album release, and made others upset with Taylor’s continuous ‘money grabs.’ Taylor also announced her engagement to football player Travis Kelce in August, leading to even more speculation and talk about her and her newest album.
Taylor dropped the album at 11 p.m. Central Time on Thursday night, and of course, Swifties at IWU are talking about it.
Surprisingly, Taylor Swift fans are divided on this album.
Many love the album and think it is a great reflection of her work, but there are others fans that think the lyrics are childish and a step down from her last album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”
First-year Jessica Soheil said that the album simply “ain’t it, sis.”
“[Taylor] has had deep lyricism in the past, and this album was not deep lyricism,” Lauren Thackray said. “All of the songs sound the same, and she has very little range. Therefore the songs need to be lyrically and musically interesting to make up for it,” she said.
Even though some listeners didn’t enjoy the lyrical simplicity of the album, they still appreciated the upbeat songs. Marisa Clark, another IWU ‘Swifty’, said “lyrically it’s not the best album, but I can appreciate the funness and the storytelling aspect of it.”
The album was much more explicit than Taylor’s previous work, with songs like “Wood” and “Actually Romantic” shocking fans across the board.
Her fiancé Travis Kelce was also brought up on multiple songs in the album, most noticeably in “Wi$h Li$t” and “Honey,” which contributes to the sensual nature of the songs and album as a whole. Eight out of the 12 songs were explicit, which is a substantial jump from her previous albums.
While many fans support this venture into more mature material, some worry that her younger fans will not be able to listen to the majority of her album. Despite the loud voices of the critics who disliked Taylor Swift’s newest album or believe it is too explicit, there are those who are defending the album, and argue that it is a similar album to “1989” and “Reputation.”
The upbeat nature of this album makes it enjoyable to listen to, and the romantic aspects of the album are very positive and fun for fans. They argue that although the lyric quality might be a ‘step down’ from “The Tortured Poets Department,” the intention for this album was not to be a lyrical masterpiece with slow ballads and mournful tunes.
It was supposed to be a happy pop album, and that is what many fans believe Taylor did.
