From Taylor Swift’s ground-breaking — and indeed ground-shaking — Eras tour to the release of her new album The Life of a Showgirl, we go from seismic to oh so still.
From a pop icon who grossed over $1 billion in a single tour, and remains the biggest of any artist winning 14 Grammy’s to date, comes her highly anticipated twelfth studio album The Life of a Showgirl. Released midnight 3rd October Eastern Time (USA), and 5am GMT to a fanbase of ‘Swifties’, who simply cannot get enough of the energy and individuality of the one and only Taylor. Many of whom within the first 24 hours will already know all the lyrics comes the cinematic release on the very same day covering a single weekend of theatres around the globe.
With 12 new tracks from her 12th unique album – not counting her ‘Taylor’s version’ re-releases – we take a stage dive into her bigger tracks of her new work, and more importantly the hit and miss cinematography of her latest musical offerings. For clarity, I shall refer back to The Eras Tour – spanning a total of 21 months of 2023 and 2024 as a benchmark for how the same artist can dominate visually and acoustically, both on stage and on screen. Whilst also stimulating the world’s economy through her record breaking global tour appearances.
The Life of a Showgirl’s tracks were written during her European tour, when T.S. was quite rightly feeling physically exhausted from a simply stunning live show of three and a half hours each night. She did however have a mental energy that required an outlet, and so between shows, flew back and forth to Sweden to write and record. Collaborating with her past producers, Max Martin and Shellback, and wrote about her exuberant, electric and private life off-stage; and all amazingly without her label knowing.
As with many albums, there are the awesome tracks and of course the also-rans, although these are thankfully limited. The first and bizarrely only track to have a fully recorded video despite the fact this has been cinematically released is not even the title track. The Fate of Ophelia spans centuries of showgirls in the guise of Taylor who in their own right work to entertain their audience under the intense spotlight for adoration. For fear of the initial music being leaked, Taylor recorded the video to a click track for timing so as not to scupper the event release. The meaning behind the record is quite simply being saved by her semi-private hero Travis Kelce from those previous also-ran boyfriends; who could not keep up with her mental and physical mega lifestyle as they ‘withered under the spotlights’. Ophelia – whose fictional character was made popular by Shakespeare, drowned after a series of adverse events – could be seen as T.S. saving herself from the deluge of public hating which happens with every global superstar. What we do have here though is a comparatively short event of 89 minutes compared to the spectacularly cinematic Eras Tour which was cut down to just under 3 hours to keep the high octane energy.
Between each track we see Miss Swift introducing the next with the meaning behind each keeping it mostly polite. Continuing with Elizabeth Taylor which is the second track on the album, and for me one of the few other catchy tracks that have a reason to come back for more. Touching on the wide violet eyes of the then film star who despite the continuing knock downs, rose to the top. Containing an extremely melodic track that has since become an earworm over the also strong opener. Going to the next track from the birthstone of Travis with Opalite, a man made rock talking about the blue skies Taylor has made for herself. The theme continues of a singer who seems now to have found peace with her very public life with her recent engagement and also her recent requisition of her past albums costing a cool $360 million.
Taylor now owns all her back catalogue despite the fact she made her ‘Taylors Version’ re-records as we touch on the quietly melodic Father Figure. Actually Romantic is an apparent slur on Charlie XCX, who was once great friends with T.S. they now of course despise each other, referring to XCX as a ‘chihuahua in a handbag’. Fast forward to the last track Life of a Showgirl is a vocal collaboration with the diminutive star Sabrina Carpenter, who has risen from the stables of Disney to perhaps be the next Taylor Swift, though for me as an end track quite downbeat compared to those of earlier offerings.
I have so far avoided the actual spectacle of what Taylor and her team have seemingly rushed together, and this is where the film event suffers greatly. The Fate of Ophelia is by far the best track yet – which is played twice – once at the beginning and then the end, it is also the only track so far with a video that isn’t a disappointing kaleidoscopic 10 second loop which can now be seen on YouTube along with all the other eleven. Arguably, seeing this in cinemas however in an all channel stereo mix setup may be the best way to experience the entire album with those around happily applauding and being absorbed into her new work.
Is this Swift’s best album? No. Will it win Grammys with the same magnitude Fearless achieved in 2008?… again, no. Will it keep her momentum going to smash further box office records? … most definitely yes. At only 35 years of age, Taylor has achieved far more than many other artists including the most number 1 albums in one year beating The Beatles. As fans continue to dive into the meanings behind each track the album is beginning to grow on me. There are some future classic Swifty tracks that will most definitely make her next sell out live tour.
Fun fact, if you place the 12 titles written in a centralised mode on the page, they make the shape of her Eras Tour stage with the diamond in the centre and the wide ‘T’ at the base. As Taylor continues to rise above the noise of the unadoring press giving more of what the fans want, we now wait for the now anticipated 13th record which I suspect she has already started. Being her lucky number this is arguably likely to have the biggest impact on the music world and have the fans bursting with delight.
Taylor has most definitely embraced being the much coveted international Life of a Showgirl, and with much aplomb will continue to deliver what the fans so desperately want. Although I have to say here the music has by far the biggest impact over the very limited un-cinematic visuals. Although there is the feeling this new album comes from an artist who has found physical stability in her football fiance and financial reckoning with her now complete collection of original works.
Author: Piers, Maidstone Store
