Taylor Swift - The Life of a Showgirl (October 3, 2025) • Page 62

Honey is good. More of the same but I dig it.
Title track is pretty good.

Overall this is a miss for me, even if I might like more songs than I dislike. The rollout, the reunion with her old producers with the implication that things would be different this time...all for it to sound like every other album she's released since Evermore. Some of her weakest writing lyrically imo. I feel like every track I really like on this is interpolating some other song by another artist that I like better. Nothing new or different or exciting here, except for talking about being wet over a Charli xcx beef and Travis Kelce's dick.

 

I thought about this as well. It feels very much like she's simply checking the boxes for a release and not putting the energy into it. Almost as if she's trying to fulfill a contract, something I would hope isn't the case.

 

Yeah this is a pretty confusing miss for me on first listen. I’m pretty low on Tortured Poets but even my first listen of that and the second disc were fucking awesome. Repeat listens revealed it to be a bloated retread, but it has some legitimately awesome songs and largely feels like an honest attempt to meet the moment of releasing during the biggest tour of all time.

This is such a weird, insecure release from the arguable biggest artist in the world. You can feel the fear that the kids are coming for the crown on almost every song. Beyond the cringe wet line, that’s what bothers me most about Almost Romantic, it should be so beneath of a star of Taylor’s caliber to come for someone who owned last year, and if she’s going to do it it should be on a much better song than this.

I dug Opalite and the last song a lot, and Wood is good (but that one feels such like a desperate attempt to capture the Chappell/Sabrina zeitgeist that I can’t help but side eye it a little too). I kind of agree that there are more solid songs than outright bad songs, but it’s pretty easily her weakest release for me if it doesn’t grow.

And agree with the general notion that it sounds a lot more like TTPD than it should have for being a return to working with Martin. That in itself isn’t a reason it’s bad but it definitely contributes to initial disappointment for me - honestly thought to myself if it’s going to sound this much like Jack why not just keep him around.

 

I like this. A lot of lyrics I don’t really care for in the slightest, but there’s some moments I’m all about. Love the trampoline line on Eldest Daughter and the bridge on Ruin the Friendship, both have that same earnest shade to them that really drew me to Taylor’s lyricism in the past.

I really wish she would stop doing the contemporary nods to stuff like trolling and memes, cuz there truly are moments in this where I’m really stunned by her storytelling, but there’s an equal amount that pulls me away

 

Title track sounds exactly like “Cool” by Jonas Brothers, a song I hear at work every day that I hate lol

 

Opalite rules

 

Caramanica with the most on-point review I've read of this album yet:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/arts/music/taylor-swift-the-life-of-a-showgirl-review.html

 

Finally got my first listen. I’m not sure why you bring Martin and Shellback in for *this* album. That being said, it sounds fantastic. There are a lot of reactions to this album I’m seeing that don’t quite line up with the album I’m listening to, especially compared to reactions people have had to similar albums in the pop music sphere in the last few years. Definitely not nearly as bad as I expected based on reaction

The Fate of Ophelia is a nice start. A perfectly safe Taylor pop song.

Love Elizabeth Taylor. Seems like a back half rep track that people slept on for far too long.

Opalite has a bit of Speak Now in her. Related: I’ve been wondering if each song would fit into the era the track number matches as I expected a bit more exploration of her life as a showgirl. But doesn’t seem to be the case.

Father Figure is more of a miss for me. The dick line actually works in the context for me. She’s quoting a business exec. Have you heard how many of them talk? I get what she’s going for here, and I really like the instrumentation, but something about this track doesn’t connect for me. The key change actually made me chuckle.

Eldest Daughter is what happens when Taylor sets out to write a “song five” instead of writing a good song that just becomes “song five.” This isn’t bad, and gets better as it goes along. The bridge really ascends. There’s a bit of Red hiding in this song.

Ruin the Friendship is finally the moment where you go, “Oh, there’s Taylor.” Which, I imagine when you’re the biggest artist on earth on a world conquering tour, there could be a bit of internal disconnect with yourself as a writer, too.

Actually Romantic, um, slaps? It’s got personality. It’s very much in the vein of Olivia Rodrigo (and if she was singing it, I think it would be an album favorite). I don’t think the second verse is about Charli, so there’s probably multiple people this is about. Like how in TIWWCHNT each verse is about someone else.

Wi$h Li$t treads that back half of rep sound again. Kind of find it middle of the road for her, but I really like the lyrical story she’s painting.

Wood is so damn cringe. It’s her attempt at Sabrina, who I also find pretty cringe most of the time. Absolute miss for me… but the music is fun af, won’t deny it. Closest to a banger to be found here.

Cancelled! has me wondering what a post-rep album would’ve sounded like if she hadn’t gone the Lover route. I really like the production on this one. Kinda flirts in the realm that Halsey used to make music in.

Honey could fit onto 1989 or Lover. Kinda surprised it wasn’t the lead single.

The title track is interesting. It feels like it was made for the album I thought this was going to be and not the album we got. I don’t really like Sabrina here in the same way I didn’t love Phoebe on Nothing New. Miley or someone else a bit more established would’ve added gravitas to both of those songs.

Not instantly in love, but excited to see how repeated listens will shape my view of this album. Nothing as immediate like a “But Daddy I Love Him” or “Maroon” off the last two albums, but could get there. The brevity works in its favor and against it. Time for Thrice and AFI.

 

I think a lot of people owe Jack Antonoff an apology.

 

I saw someone on Instagram say that this is the Taylor album they’ve been waiting for and that ditching Jack was the right choice. So…no, nobody is going to apologize lol

 

I’m sorry Mr. Antonoff

 

i think he'll be fine

 

I think the change in producers is clear as far as general sound of the tracks is concerned, but the songwriting and performance over those tracks is more of the same. If you got Midnights and the Tortured Poets Whatever it’s called, with their bonus tracks, and put them in a playlist with this album, and the newly finished songs for the TV “vault” tracks, and put it on shuffle… the choices in instruments, etc., would be all that would maybe hint at separate albums (and even then, a single album can be that sonically “diverse”).

Idk, I just want her to go away songwriting wise (unless she wants to start actively giving songs to other artists?) and either enjoy a hiatus as she gets married, or attempt that whole movie thing (whether said movie ends up working or not). Heck, do both, hiatus and then movie? Make people outside her diehards miss her and want more. As is, I feel like I’m with Moses in the desert drowning in quail up to my fucking nostrils.

 

Jack could live off TS royalities for the rest of his life without touring/making music ever again

 

Well he just told me he appreciates the apology. It doesn’t cost a thing to be nice

 

Yeah, the more I listen to "Actually Romantic," the more convinced I am that's a composite song about multiple different people, or maybe about "haters" in general like "Shake It Off" was. Definitely brought to mind Olivia and "The Grudge" as much as Charli for me.

 

Yep, 100%

 

Idk, I feel like Actually Romantic is way too pointed to be about multiple people. Who knows though.

 

afi and taylor both releasing their 12th studio albums on the same day was a risky choice for taylor

 

Stereogum review is interesting, especially coming from Breihan who is an absolute master. Lots of good points and yet I’m not sure I’m hearing the same level of craft he is. It’s almost a perfect review of Rep or Midnights or Tortured Poets, but it doesn’t totally ring true to me for this batch of songs.

 

There must be a super secret version of the album they're all listening to that I am not because this is actually worse than Lover.

 

Yeesh this actually romantic song is one of the bigger missteps by any artist I can recall

 

Throw me in with those who are surprised people don't know charli. i know she's not a household name that like my mom would know, but brat summer was massive. It was referenced by the Kamala harris campaign. The apple dance went super viral on tiktok. It was being memed everywhere. It had pop culture impact. I'd get why someone older may not know but color me surprised if someone my age and younger doesn't.