harry_bev

I actually think you've nailed it with the bad faith point, because two things can be true at once here. The Life of a Showgirl is not a particularly good Taylor Swift album. I'll die on that hill. I think it's extremely middling as an album generally and, judged against her own catalogue, pretty poor. The problem is that the bar was obscenely high. This is someone who gave me eleven albums before this that, whatever my personal ranking of them, all had their own identity, perspective and place in my life. But we also have to remember how much people are moved by the general zeitgeist. I genuinely would not be surprised if a decent chunk of the people gleefully taking a hammer to absolutely everything she releases now were at the Eras Tour during the enormous cultural wave immediately before this one. The internet loves a pile-on. It always has. And Swift occupies this bizarre position where whatever direction the air is currently blowing gets amplified tenfold. The adoration becomes ridiculous, and then the backlash becomes ridiculous too. And saying that isn't me pretending the criticism of Showgirl is undeserved. I had moments listening to it where I genuinely wondered whether Taylor had always sounded like this and I'd somehow gaslit myself since finding her around OG Speak Now. So I went backwards through the catalogue and, honestly, the difference is jarring. No. She hadn't. It really is this album. And then she brought a light back to it even stronger with "the encore" with one very good track, you mentioned, two more "ok" tracks and one that is very predictably draggable (! 👀). I think she was creatively uninspired. I don't think she had very much she actually wanted to say, and for probably the first time in her career I can hear her reaching for "Taylor Swift lyrics" rather than just writing them naturally. Which is exactly why the bad faith element annoys me. The Fate of Ophelia is a cracking pop song. Babylon is genuinely one of the best things to come out of this entire project. If we've reached the point where even something like Babylon has to be dismissed because the accepted internet position is currently "Taylor Swift bad", then we're not really discussing the music anymore. We're participating in the mood around it. Even the original album has grown on me in little pockets. I've warmed to Wi$h Li$t a lot. I know it isn't her finest hour, but it's pretty. I've always liked Honey in that very specific way where I knew it wasn't great but it worked for me anyway. Ruin the Friendship and Eldest Daughter are fine songs, although some of the lyrics still take me straight out of them. There is good material here. There just isn't enough of it, and there certainly isn't enough of the inspiration that used to make even her less immediate songs reveal themselves over time. The irony is that she was getting lashed for TTPD barely five minutes ago for being too long, too wordy and too slow, and I still think that was a genuinely beautiful body of work. Now she makes the short Max Martin pop album people supposedly wanted and gets battered for that too. Some of that is absolutely fair criticism of the execution. Some of it is just the pendulum swinging. I have no idea whether she has another huge cultural resurgence in her. Maybe she does, maybe she doesn't. But Swift is such a fascinating phenomenon because the extremes around her are so extreme. I sometimes wonder whether Lover would have produced a similar cooling-off period if its touring cycle had actually happened properly. Then folklore and evermore completely rewrote the trajectory of her career, the re-recordings followed, and eventually the Eras Tour gave her what must have been her third or fourth enormous wind. So I don't really see Showgirl as some grand revelation that Taylor Swift was secretly talentless all along. I see an artist who made eleven albums ranging, for me, from good to masterpiece-level work and then eventually made one where the creative well sounded noticeably drier. After that amount of output, it was probably inevitable at some point. And because she's Taylor Swift, she'll experience that dip about ten times more violently than almost anyone else would, for reasons that would require a sociology essay nobody asked me to write. I'm actually much more interested in what happens next than I am in defending this album. I hope she takes some time, lets this era end, lives a bit, and works out what she genuinely wants to say next. Babylon, if anything, reassures me that the writer is still in there. She just needs something worth writing about. And if anyone actually read all of that, thanks for coming to my completely unsolicited Taylor Swift dissertation

"You only need to find one person in this entire world / Who doesn't find you completely insufferable" Cleveland! Is the easiest for the people who showed up to hate, to hate on here. So that comes as no surprise. But please tell me y'all at least know she's clocking you and that's the point of the song? Or is your IQ that low? 🌝

Genuinely, this is what I expected the first time around 🤣 Patient Zero is the only one that doesn't really fit the "aesthetic" the album was pushed with, but the other three do. And it fits the "life" element. Some of the lyrics on the original album are just flat out BAD. None of these new four tracks are anywhere near the level of some of her greatest writing, of course. But we don't need that every time anyway, these were fun! PS - Cleveland! Is clocking y'all hard 😅

Yeah now I've sat with this from start to finish this is a no skip for me 💀 I'll stand by it, this asks a lot of the listener, and you need to be a fan to stick with it and hear the nuance of each track. I fear that'll be its downfall 😢 but as for being a fan, I love it.

Explain this a bit more for me pls? Bullied? This dude I was dating showed me "Feels Like" about three years ago and I locked in from there, I feel like I'm missing context. I found TSOU boring on first listen and then it slowly became one of my all time favourite albums 🤣

You have so much knowledge!! You haven't by any chance heard crazy girl yet have you? Can't find that anywhere.

This was very well written and made a lot of good points 😌 out of nowhere is indeed a loss and I really did think she was about to lean hard into that sound. But there will absolutely be a deluxe and I'm praying it's on that 🥺

I wouldn't say so. It was just somehow more commercially friendly in a way I can't pin down? But perhaps it's recency bias and not fully knowing the songs yet. It's a 5/5 for me regardless 🤣

Hmm. This albums biggest flaw is that it REALLY requires you to already be a Gracie Abrams fan to appreciate and enjoy. It's quite slow, and the magic is in the lyrics and the deliberate instrumentals. I don't think it'll do a lot for her in the way of expanding her horizons or her fanbase. There's not really a "close to you", "that's so true" or "I love you, I'm sorry" here. However, for me personally, I adore it. Death Wish (although different), Men Like You, Minibar, Daughter From Hell and What If It's Right? were all big standouts for me here. 👏

I see this. A more valid point than whatever that other person is trying to say. I think that's why it looked so silly when TLOAS got 5/5 from them. Still, I'm more clocking rolling stone here than any artists. A 4.5 doesn't mean much from them when they've knocked their credibility - though I have no doubt the album will sit in that range. Regardless. This album will be a 5/5 in my household my signed art card vinyl is on the way and tour tickets secured

You built an entire argument against a sentence I literally never wrote. 💀 I said Rolling Stone. Singular. One Publication. Not the entire global music press. Making sense now? I don't trust them as a publishing body and take stock of other reviews more after the showgirl 5/5. Critical thinking starts with reading what's actually there my friend - give "strawman argument" or even just "critical thinking skills" a Google, they'll do wonders. 🤗 Anyway, stupid old silly me. 1 day 7 hours left until we finally get GA3, I'm BUZZING

I'd usually shut this down but after the 5/5 Showgirl review I don't disagree, and I'm a swiftie 🫪

Not as instant as Hit The Wall for me. I can't help but feel like she's flopping a bit on pushing the album / creating hype 🥺

Surely this song will be huge? 🫪

Damn. Is she cooked with Drake's mass release?