Captures

In a 2014 Rolling Stone cover story, Taylor Swift described passing a man on the street who, inexplicably, walked around with a cat on his head. She wanted to take a picture, but hesitated: “What if he just wants to walk around with a cat on his head, and not have his picture taken all day?” The singer-songwriter offered sympathy because she is a massive celebrity, photographed every time she leaves home. 

Aside from romantic love, Swift‘s own fame has been the main subject of her work. In a 2015 interview with Glamour, the singer assessed her trajectory: “I was not shot out of a cannon. It was about five years before I became recognizable to everyone.” The irony of Swift’s life is that when she says “everyone”, it could literally mean every human. 

This universal existence is the premise for Swift’s 12th studio album, the Max Martin-produced The Life of a Showgirl. Swift first worked with Martin on 2012’s Red, venturing into pop, and the journey to the stratosphere took off from there. Swift collaborated with Martin on 1989 and Reputation, and Jack Antonoff added indie flair to Lover and Midnights. For a change, Aaron Dressner of the National created the acoustic soundscape of folklore and evermore. 

In terms of theme, The Life of a Showgirl is a sister to 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department. Both albums portray the distorted human experience of famous people, their emotions turned into products of public consumption. However, when fame itself becomes a product, can any part of a celebrity’s life appear human? 

In the Tortured Poets track “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” Swift compares herself to a circus animal: “I am what I am ’cause you trained me.” The symbolism of The Life of a Showgirl is thinly veiled by comparison, but that is not to the album’s discredit. Swift is a confessional writer. In “Elizabeth Taylor”, Swift likens the reaction she would have to her current love affair ending to the infamous meltdown of a 1950s icon. “I’d cry my eyes violet,” she says, launching into a haunting hook. 

Elsewhere on Showgirl, Taylor Swift settles scores. “CANCELLED!” is an eerie and arresting takedown of the celebrity industrial complex. “Good thing I like my friends canceled,” Swift says over a bassline that sounds like a musical death march in the best way possible. “Welcome to my underworld,” she adds, implying that, in an alternate universe, her network of famous friends could have been a convincing band of villains. 

The revenge-seeking continues. In “Actually Romantic”, Swift takes aim at Charli XCX in the same way “Bad Blood” addressed a feud with Katy Perry. “Like a chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse / That’s how much it hurts,” Swift says. Allegedly, Charli XCX wrote “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show,” on “Sympathy Is a Knife”, about Swift. Charli XCX is married to the drummer of The 1975, and Swift dated the band’s frontman, Matty Healy. 

The Life of a Showgirl reveals that Swift is now in a healthy relationship. In “Honey”, the singer mentions a lover who called her in the middle of the night to ask what she was wearing, but did not remember the conversation the next day. (This sounds like Healy.) On the other hand, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce offers a benign new chapter. “Got me dreaming ’bout a driveway with a basketball hoop,” Swift says on “Wi$h Li$t”. You can’t help but be happy for her. 

In “Father Figure”, which interpolates George Michael‘s song of the same name, Swift recalls a protege who betrayed her. The song is the album’s best example of Swift’s strengths. A key change in the final chorus provides a melodic lift that matches the increased stakes of a back-stabbing. “Who’s portrait’s on the mantel? Who covered up your scandals?” she asks.

Soothing harmonies and dreamy synths throughout the song contrast its narrative, mixed emotions, in a concise vessel. Swift’s revenge is necessary, but she is sad to let go of an apprentice. “Father Figure” sounds like what Miranda Priestly, the fashion editor of The Devil Wears Prada, would have written about the assistant who resigned after a great accomplishment. 

Like Priestly, Swift understands that moral ambiguity is necessary to uphold a well-meaning empire. “I’m married to the hustle,” she says on the title track, which closes the album and features Sabrina Carpenter. The presence of Swift’s pop star protege embodies the song’s narrative, where an aspiring starlet achieves her destiny and passes the torch. 

The song’s outro is a recorded clip of Swift closing an Eras Tour show. While some of Showgirl’s tracks may lack the eccentricity of Midnights, this recording reminds listeners they played a part in the album’s origin. “I never really let myself say, ‘I’ve made it,” but the Eras Tour…this is different,” Swift said on Kelce’s New Heights podcast.  

Elsewhere, “Eldest Daughter” is a searing look back at Swift’s coming-of-age. “Every eldest daughter was the first lamb to the slaughter,” she says. This assessment describes Swift’s place in the music industry as a confessional songwriter who emerged in the 2000s diva era, yet received the same, if not more, tabloid scrutiny. 

The Life of a Showgirl enshrines Swift’s proof of concept as a celebrity: modern fame is an act of honesty and excess, a contemporary witch trial, and a glamorous night out. Charli XCX, Swift’s newest rival, brought depth to the dancefloor ruminations of brat: “I’m famous but not quite / One foot in a normal life,” she said on “I might say something stupid.” 

On Showgirl’s cover, Swift is submerged, her face poking above the surface of the water. The image references “The Fate of Ophelia”, where Swift thanks a lover for saving her from Shakespearean tragedy. Martin’s production bobs and weaves around Swift’s subtle hesitations and soulful spillovers: “If you’d never come for me / I might’ve lingered in purgatory.” 

When Swift is concise, it makes a bold statement. Although now heralded as an opus, upon its release, critics found Red scattershot. A succinct collection of uniform pop bangers, 1989, followed. Similarly, Showgirl is 12 tracks compared to Tortured Poets’ 31. However, in this case, brevity does not equal wit. “Did you, girlboss too close to the sun?” Swift asks on “CANCELLED!” A grab bag of internet slang is an unfortunate presence on the album. 

Overall, Swift’s writing holds up. The bridge of “Eldest Daughter” is a cinematic reverie of youthful indiscretions and natural imagery. “We lie back, a beautiful time lapse / Fairytale kisses and lilacs,” Swift says, as lush harmonies and acoustic guitars create a wistful medley. 

“I’m an archer. We stand back, assess, process how we feel, raise a bow, pull back, and fire,” she said in a 2019 Rolling Stone interview, referring to her astrological sign, Sagittarius. The Life of a Showgirl is not a misfire, but 1989 was a bullseye. Both albums share a similar mission: named for the singer’s birth year, 1989 marked a renewal and the start of an imperial phase. “I’m immortal, baby dolls, I couldn’t [die] if I tried,” Swift says on Showgirl’s title track. 

Swift wrote The Tortured Poets Department in a highly pressurized environment: the beginning of the biggest concert tour of all time, the breakdown of her six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn, and her chaotic rebound with Matty Healy. This public echo chamber resembles a scene in the music video for “Fortnight”, where Swift plays a captive in a laboratory, forced to take experimental drugs. “Forget him,” one pill bottle reads. 

Singer-songwriters want to tell their stories, but Swift is also a celebrity. Consequently, the public has an interest in providing “advice” based on what her life appears to be. Additionally, after a prolific run of albums, listeners chime in on what type of music Swift should release. The eagerness to form opinions on the singer’s creative decisions proves she has done her job. The ability to discuss the work is part of the product being sold. 

Taylor Swift can capture the zeitgeist because she understands the concept of one: a battle between tension and freedom, and the knowledge that conflict is necessary to sustain the things we want. The Tortured Poets Department proves Swift will navigate pain when it is part of a story. The Life of a Showgirl releases that angst. “They stood by me before my exoneration,” Swift said on “CANCELLED!” Even non-existence as a public figure is a discourse Swift engaged with and survived. Now that’s showmanship.