How Taylor Swift’s New Album “Girlbossed Too Close to the Sun”
Lina Kabbour, BA Politics and International Relations
Taylor Swift has finally released her long-awaited album ‘The Life of a Showgirl’. The album is inspired by the Eras Tour and her inner world ‘when the lights go down’, as she stated on fiancé Travis Kelce’s podcast. She also announced it would be produced by pop veterans Max Martin and Shellback, who have given us hits like ‘Shake It Off’, and ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’.
Rolling Stone Magazine has called the album ‘a whole new artistic and personal peak’, awarding it a perfect score of 5/5. This begs the question: Does the album really deliver on its promising artistic vision? Well, not really.
A few songs, such as ‘Elizabeth Taylor’ and ‘The Fate of Ophelia’, embody the showgirl theme; they offer sharp commentary on the loneliness of being at the top and the relief of finally finding romantic love. The orchestral arrangements in ‘Elizabeth Taylor’ exemplify Hollywood glamour, and its chorus is Martin and Swift at their best; it's catchy, intelligently written, and addictive.
However, songs like ‘Opalite’, ‘Honey’ and ‘Wi$h Li$t’ sound more radio pop than burlesque. Their bright synths and sugary choruses disrupt the overall moody and sultry tone of the record, overall making them sound out of place, and perhaps more fitting during her ‘Lover’ era.
Moreover, some songs are simply grating. Swift references to dated internet terms. ‘I’m not a bad bitch and this isn’t savage’ in ‘Eldest Daughter’ or the ‘Did you girl-boss too close to the sun?’ in ‘CANCELLED!’. The use of 2020 internet terminology in her songs feels jarringly out of place, especially for Swift, who’s built her identity on being a songwriter before a performer. Furthermore, she appears to take unjustified jabs at Charli XCX in her song ‘Actually Romantic’ – a widely speculated response to the singer’s ‘Sympathy is a Knife’ – comparing her to ‘a toy chihuahua barking at [her] from a tiny purse’, seemingly referencing alluded behind-the-scenes tension they’ve had. But Charli’s song is mainly about how inferior she feels in comparison to Swift’s success. Thus, tonally the song is unnecessarily antagonistic, especially considering the singer is the world’s biggest pop star who is belittling an artist popular in an entirely different genre.
In the end, while there are moments on the record that give glimpses of Swift’s inner world as a ‘showgirl’ that we were promised, there are far too many songs that are incompatible with the album’s theme. This is exacerbated by the awkwardly phrased lyrics that do not reach the calibre of the songwriting the popstar has proven on her other albums. That, coupled with the unwarranted aggression of ‘Actually Romantic’ proves that ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ is a mess of an album that deserves last place in Swift’s wider discography.
