“Did you girl boss too close to the sun?” is a lyric I never thought I would hear in 2025, but I guess there’s a first time for everything.

Lyrics like this, which is found in “CANCELLED!”, abound in Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl.” It is a stark contrast to her past spectacular albums, such as “evermore,” “folklore,” and “Lover.” So, in other words, I hate this album.  

To be fair, I wasn’t entirely expecting much from it. Something about the orange-and-aqua sequins and the track list names (why is “Wi$h Li$t” spelled with dollar signs?) made the promotion feel inauthentic and rushed. To me, it felt like Swift was trying too hard to be trendy.

Released on Oct. 3, 2025, “The Life of a Showgirl” is Swift’s latest addition to her dizzyingly long and successful discography. It is her 12th studio album, and her first since announcing her engagement to star tight-end Travis Kelce, who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs. 

Her new engagement is a central part of the album. For the first time since “Lover,” Swift is in a steady relationship, the world is not in lockdown (such as in “evermore” and “folklore”), and she is at a high point of her career. The album even became the most sold during opening week, selling more than 3.5 million copies within five days of its release and beating out a record held by Adele for over a decade. 

The album opens in an admittedly promising manner: “The Fate of Ophelia” has a catchy beat, romantic lyrics (“Late one night, you dug me out of my grave and/Saved my heart from the fate of/Ophelia”), and some of her best vocals of the entire album. “Opalite,” the third song of the album, also is one of Swift’s happiest, and is chock-full of lyrics detailing how Swift finally found love. 

Yet, as the album progressed, I found myself not really paying attention; it was boring and didn’t have the lyrics typically associated with Swift.

For example, “Actually Romantic” is only noteworthy because of how it childishly disses Charli XCX—who was not obsessed with Swift in a “romantic” way—and not because of the song itself. The song features awkward vocals and immature lyrics (“I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave”). 

“Honey” features some of Swift’s least heartfelt lyrics since “ME!” in “Lover:”

“If anyone called me ‘Honey’/It was standing in the bathroom/White teeth/They were saying that skirt don’t fit me/And I cried the whole way home,” Swift sings in “Honey.”

The eponymous “The Life of a Showgirl,” which contains the only feature—the glorious Sabrina Carpenter—of the album, had potential. Yet both Swift and Carpenter were dragged down, once again, by the lyrics. 

“Hey, thank you for the lovely bouquet/You’re sweeter than a peach/But you don’t know the life of a showgirl, babe,” they sing.

While yes, these lyrics themselves are not terrible, and are actually synonymous with many current pop stars, there is a stark quality difference between these and Swift’s past songs.

For example, “Where’s that man who’d throw blankets over my barbed wire?/I made you my temple, my mural, my sky/Now I’m begging for footnotes in the story of your life” from “tolerate it” or “Swear to be overdramatic and true to my/Lover/And you’ll save all your dirtiest jokes for me/And at every table, I’ll save you a seat” from “Lover.” Swift has, in the past, even created a story within three songs: “cardigan,” “august,” and “betty.” These lyrics showcase her mastery in songwriting, yet in “The Life of a Showgirl,” it seems something has changed.

Swift’s previous heartfelt and detailed lyrics are what drew me to her songs. Yes, I found a great deal of appreciation for the pop-like lyrics of other artists, yet Swift’s frank and emotional lines were more relatable and poetic.

Of the three different types of singers–performer, vocalist, and songwriter–Swift is, without a doubt, a songwriter. In “The Life of a Showgirl,” however, Swift’s typical lyricism is shed for something less profound, something I found incredibly disappointing. 

While today, my Swift-craze has faded, I do want success for her. I am extremely happy that her personal life has been at a high, yet I am a bit disappointed that her music isn’t of the same magnitude. 

Perhaps Swift just needed more time to write. I honestly believe that if she took more time to refine the lyrics, the melodies, and the delivery, this album would have been fantastic. Instead, we are stuck with a just OK album with surface-level lyrics.