“The Life of a Showgirl” from the eyes of a non-Swiftie

Graphic by Easton Clark, Photo Editor

I’m not a big fan of Taylor Swift, but am in no way a hater either. I would describe my attitude towards the artist and her work as almost perfectly neutral, with dips and growth here and there — The Eras Tour movie was a good time. She is nothing if not savvy in terms of her own brand and the stranglehold she has on our culture. That dominance has never been more evident than now.

With her latest album “The Life of a Showgirl,” Swift, in addition to multiple vinyl and CD editions and Target-specific merchandise, released what she classified as a film in theaters to accompany the album’s release. I use the term “film” loosely, in that I watched it at a movie theater. It is part music video, part behind-the-scenes documentary, part peek into the album itself, where Swift sits down and explains her intention behind each song before it plays, that only someone with her level of celebrity would get millions of poor souls to spend 20 bucks on. 

Here is my experience, cosplaying as a Swiftie for a weekend.

Friday

I will admit, I sort of put off engaging with “Showgirl.” Everything I heard about the album ranged from mixed reviews to negative, with certain songs becoming the subject of particular ire — “Wood” chief among them, which lived up to whatever the opposite of hype is, despite its Jackson 5-esque sunniness.

I can’t really remember the energy around Swift’s prior work with much clarity, because I wasn’t plugged in, but there was an air of exhaustion to this one that felt new, with the exception of her most committed fans, who leaped to defend it with alarming conviction. 

Swift could release a recording of her reading the phone book and there’s a contingent of the population that would praise it like it’s the greatest thing to happen to music. I don’t really regard that with contempt towards her acolytes as much as I do fascination with how she’s been able to cultivate it.

Saturday

So, finally, the time had come. The bill came due and I sat down at my laptop and pressed play on the album. And I gotta say: it was… fine.

Often, the better a song sounded, the worse it was written. There are certain lived experiences that it’s clear Swift is quite acquainted with. Heartbreaks from her youth have been responsible for massive amounts of wealth and influence in a way I’m not sure anyone else has tapped into with these kinds of results. I wonder now that she’s in a loving, committed relationship and low on woes, if that’s why so many of her songs feel so out of touch.

For instance, “Actually Romantic,” which many have read as dissing Charli xcx, is mean-spirited drivel. It also feels like her attempt to tap into something spunkier that someone like Olivia Rodrigo would put out. If the deepest Swift can reach into her own neuroses is instigating a petty beef with a fellow pop music personality, then Swifties, I must suggest that, as they say, your GOAT is washed. 

I have very little patience for the tracks on this album that feel so celebrity-brained, it makes you question who this album is for. On a song like “Romantic” or “CANCELLED!,” she’s stuck on conflicts entirely related to her own celebrity and alienating all of her listeners who are not at that level of stardom — aka everybody. It’s alarming how many of these songs are in some way about how hard it is to be famous. 

The album sounds great, don’t get me wrong. Swift and her team have the hook of a pop song down to a science, but the project is poorly conceived. In some of these songs, Swift is aiming for cool with a breathy, uncaring reserve, but that’s all undone when she hits you with a lyric like “Every joke’s just trolling and memes.”

Sunday

My colleagues informed me that “Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” was, in fact, lyric videos of the same album I’d heard with a music video mixed in. Despair set in as I sat down in a near-empty auditorium for just that. I get why she did it, beyond capitalizing on her last theatrical release being as big a hit as it was. It’s actually pretty neat to get to hear a full album on cineplex-quality speakers. I hope more artists will follow suit.

Try as I might not to enjoy it — and I did — I was surprised to find that certain songs rose in my estimation with the second listen in the new environment. In particular, “Eldest Daughter” grew on me. It’s slower and a little more contemplative than the rest of the album. And although some of her lyricism is clunky, it feels authentic. I like that it’s a song about her acknowledging and resisting her need to seem cool. The rest of the album sees her fall right back into that impulse, so I’m not sure if she’s practicing what she preaches here, but it’s a nice song.

My advice to Taylor is that there’s no shame in taking a break. It’s clear that the vocal, unusually negative reaction to this album is, in part, a result of her mounting ubiquity. She wrote this album while on an astoundingly successful world tour, and when you’re on top of the world to this degree, I’m sure it’s hard for people to tell you “no” or challenge your creative impulses in a way that bleeds into the output. 

This becomes quite clear in the behind-the-scenes footage documenting the making of the music video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” which opens the film. Although it does shed some light on how they made a music video, it feels painfully micromanaged by Team Swift. Everyone is all smiles as they mindlessly approve all of Swift’s creative whims — which to her credit, leads to a really fun music video — but even the making of her music video being a product of Swift’s own making makes me regard it with a fair bit of skepticism. She even gets applause from her crew just for catching a football mid-take. It’s just odd to see someone who’s set so many precedents and broken so many records require adoration at basically all times. 

More than that, though, it’s alright to take some time off simply to let some things marinate. Hearing her explain the creative seed behind each song illustrated a hunch I had that this was basically just a musical manifestation of her notes app. I’m sure a “cool word” or “alliteration” (quoting the woman herself here) have been the genesis for many of the great songs, but I think she would be wise to embrace quality over quantity.