Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” is a dazzling yet delicate balancing act — one part spectacle, one part self-reflection. The album is ambitious and deeply personal, but it’s not without moments that weaken its execution.
“The Fate of Ophelia” opens the record as its lead single, a theatrical meditation on love, performance and reinvention. Drawing from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” Swift reimagines Ophelia’s doomed infatuation as a story of redemption through love. She sings, “Ophelia lived in fantasy / But love was a cold bed full of scorpions / The venom stole her sanity,” comparing her own longing for connection to Ophelia’s unraveling.
The song transforms that tragedy into salvation, conveying that finding real love can rewrite one’s fate. Visually, the music video mirrors this evolution, blending imagery of vintage showgirls and Shakespearean-era art to reflect the album’s larger narrative — the showgirl saved, not consumed, by her story.
Swift wrote “Elizabeth Taylor” to tell a story of her desires and vulnerabilities in love while drawing parallels between herself and the actress — both women publicly scrutinized for their romantic lives. She sings, “All the right guys promised they’d stay / Under bright lights, they withered away / But you bloom,” contrasting the devotion she’s been promised with the reality of relationships that faltered under the flash of a paparazzi camera.
Then comes one of the song’s most striking lines: “I’d cry my eyes violet, Elizabeth Taylor,” a vivid image connecting her own blue eyes — reddened from tears and appearing violet — to Taylor’s famously described violet eyes. The line fuses Swift’s raw emotion with Taylor’s aura of glamour, reflecting how she wrestles with being both the heartbroken woman and the mythic figure everyone’s watching. Produced by Swift alongside Max Martin and Shellback, the track’s bold, drum-heavy production calls back the charged energy of “reputation,” their last collaboration nearly a decade ago.
The cinematic sheen of “Elizabeth Taylor” gives way to a softer, more grounded reflection on love and self-made joy. On “Opalite,” Swift plays with the idea of opalite being a man-made version of the natural stone opal and draws a connection between the stone and crafting one’s own happiness. She makes it a point to step away from the synth-heavy production that defined her previous collaborations with Jack Antonoff on “The Tortured Poets Department” and “Midnights,” embracing a gentler, more organic sound instead.
“Opalite” opens with a soft electric guitar riff and understated drums, evoking an indie warmth that pairs with Swift’s mellow, relaxed delivery. The track’s bridge features a canon technique — repeating a line with staggered entrances, a nod to musical theater — tying back to the showgirl aesthetic she’s been threading throughout the album.
Swift also plays around with having different narrators battle for power within a single song as she references the battle of power between a protege and mentor. In “Father Figure,” she sings, “Just step into my office / I dry your tears with my sleeve/ Leave it with me / I protect the family,” repeating “I protect the family” six times throughout the song, a reference to the six albums she reclaimed, fans speculate. The song becomes a meditation on growth, independence and the delicate balance between influence and self-assertion.
While Swift succeeds in addressing criticisms from her previous albums — experimenting with non-synth production, tightening her writing and trimming the tracklist — “The Life of a Showgirl” still stumbles in moments of lazy and occasionally cringey songwriting.
“Eldest Daughter” represents this flaw best. Swift explores the idea of online personas and her own struggle to shed the schoolgirl image often projected onto her, sprinkling in slang like “bad b****” and “savage” in what feels like a strained attempt to sound edgier. She builds the song around the dichotomy between herself and Kelce — the eldest daughter and the youngest son — and how their contrasting familial roles shape their relationship. It’s a concept ripe with potential, but one that never quite finds its footing.
The track’s bridge offers a glimpse of classic Swift brilliance, as she sings, “We lie back / A beautiful, beautiful time-lapse / …’Cause I thought that I’d never find that / Beautiful, beautiful life that / Shimmers that innocent light back,” conjuring the nostalgia and intimacy that made her early songwriting resonate. Yet beyond that moment, “Eldest Daughter” feels muddled and uneven. What could have been a poignant reflection on the pressures placed on eldest daughters turns into a confusing mix of ideas, leaving fans puzzled and giving haters ample ammunition to criticize her lyricism.
While it’s clear why Swift is intentionally using cringey slang, lines like “Every eldest daughter was the first lamb to the slaughter / So we all dressed up as wolves and we looked fire” sound more awkward than insightful, dragging down a song that should’ve been one of the album’s most emotional highlights.
“Wood” stands out as one of the album’s most polarizing tracks, with listeners either loving its playful charm or cringing at its execution. The song channels an upbeat, Motown-inspired sound reminiscent of “I Want You Back” by the Jackson 5, marking one of Swift’s boldest production choices on “The Life of a Showgirl.” Lyrically, it ties together superstitions like picking flower petals and knocking on wood to symbolize how Swift once relied on luck in love but now feels secure in her relationship.
The lyrics on “Wood” have sparked a divide within the fandom, with some praising it as cheeky and playful while others deride it as painfully cringey or so bad it sounds AI-generated. Swift makes it an effort to reiterate how her vision for the album was to play into different aspects of being a showgirl including sexuality. While Swift sometimes misses the mark on sexiness, the backlash may stem from fans finding her candid lyrics about sex out of character compared to artists like Sabrina Carpenter.
“The Life of a Showgirl” features 12 cohesive tracks, each rooted in storytelling that has drawn both praise and critique. From offering petty acknowledgments of haters and supposed celebrity feuds in “Actually Romantic,” to building imagined worlds of showgirls offering advice on the allure and scrutiny of fame in the closing track “The Life of a Showgirl” featuring Sabrina Carpenter, Swift crafts an album full of catchy, theatrical songs that chronicle her life on and after the Eras Tour.
While “The Life of a Showgirl” hasn’t yet developed an aesthetic that fully matches its sound, fans are eager to see how the showgirl persona will continue to evolve as the album rollout progresses. The glitzy, vintage imagery contrasts with the music itself, which leans into raw emotion, sharp storytelling and experimental production influenced by ‘70s and ‘80s pop. Across the tracklist, Swift takes creative risks with bold key changes, octave jumps and nostalgic melodies, showcasing her willingness to push both vocally and sonically.
Lyrically, the album has divided listeners. Some praise her vulnerability and storytelling, while others find her candidness occasionally cringey, toeing the line between millennial relatability and awkwardness. Swift herself reflected on the work in an Apple Music interview, stating, “I have a lot of respect for people’s subjective opinions on art.” As she transitions away from heartbreak-driven narratives toward songs rooted in newfound happiness, she may need to reassess how to convey joy without sacrificing her lyrical precision.
Even with uneven moments, the album demonstrates that Swift remains capable of crafting catchy, expressive songs while experimenting with her sound and persona in this new era. Some songs miss their mark, some hit the spotlight, but Taylor Swift still commands the stage.