Taylor Swift receives mixed reviews for The Life Of A Showgirl
By Lauren Del Fabbro, PA Entertainment Reporter
Taylor Swift has received mixed reviews for her highly anticipated 12th studio album, The Life Of A Showgirl.
Written during the European leg of her Eras Tour, the album pulls back the curtain on the singer’s life and romance with fiance and NFL star Travis Kelce, indulging listeners in a fun and playful 12-track pop record that moves away from her more recent folk-acoustic sound.
Released on Friday, the album was made with Swedish duo Max Martin and Shellback, reuniting the singer with the producers she worked with in 2017 for her album Reputation and 2014’s pop juggernaut album 1989.
The new record received five stars from Rolling Stone Magazine, which described it as having “new, exciting sonic turns” and “incisive storytelling”, while the Times, which gave the album four stars, said it was Swift at her “happiest, and most fun” with “solid, hook-filled tunes”.
The Times said: “The Life Of A Showgirl is essentially a companion piece to Reputation, but where that album railed against the vagaries of fame, this one accepts them, possibly because a fairy-tale love story has made Swift a lot happier and more capable of handling it all. That’s why it is so much fun.”
Some, however, were less impressed, notably The Guardian and The Financial Times, who gave the album two stars.
The Telegraph, which gave it three stars, said: “It is a fine album – a witty, literate, mellifluous collection of overwhelmingly romantic singer-songwriter-style pop songs about the triumph of love, almost certainly spelled L-U-R-V-E. But for all its sophistication, Showgirl showcases Swift at her least dramatically intense.
“Its 12 songs are all perfectly formed, smoothly sung and sweetly delivered in pastel musical shades, elegant melodies perked up by clever turns of phrase, with a tang of spikiness and raunch occasionally breaking through to remind us Swift is a 21st-century woman and not a superannuated Disney princess.”
The FT described the record as lacking “sparkle” and said the “promised bangers fail to materialise”, with The Guardian concluding there is a “distinct lack of undeniable hooks and nailed-on melodies”.
Despite praising some of the key changes, lyricism and chord sequences in some of the songs, The Guardian said the rest of the album “floats in one ear and out the other: not unpleasantly, but you might reasonably expect more given the amassed songwriting firepower behind it, and Swift’s claims of ‘keeping the bar really high’.”
The Life Of A Showgirl is the first album since Swift announced her engagement to Kelce earlier this year and it follows her 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, in April 2024.