On Oct. 3, Taylor Swift, a pop singer and songwriter, released her 15th studio album “The Life of a Showgirl,” which was highly anticipated by the public, but did not live up to its expectations. 

The album had one feature, “The Life of a Showgirl,” with another pop star, Sabrina Carpenter, which was okay at best. The song begins with a clap-stomp beat and describes a story of Taylor meeting Kitty Finlay, who warns her she might not truly want the life of a showgirl. The song concludes with Taylor saying she wouldn’t want it any other way. The story that she tries to get across with this song might be inspiring to some, but the wordplay doesn’t live up to the lyricism fans have come to expect from the pop idol.

While the song has a catchy beat, most fans look to her for deep, meaningful lyrics that they can relate to. Lyrics like “They ripped me off like false lashes and threw me away” are just bad similes with zero creativity that most of the songs in this album are filled with. 

Other lyrics, such as “Everyone is so unbothered until they’re not” from her song “Eldest Daughter” and “Did you girlboss too close to the sun?” from “CANCELLED!” are shallow word-plays clearly trying to appeal to a Gen Z audience, which does succeed, but in a negative light.  Most of her younger audience aren’t a fan of this release, and some even state this is her worst album yet. 

Although the album can be listened to as nice background music, Swift has released better music in the past. Lyrically meaningful and catchy, her old albums were well deserving of awards. “Life of a Showgirl” is just not one of them.

Most songs in this album describe various situations in her life that are uniquely tied to a level of fame that only she, a “showgirl”, knows.  “Actually Romantic” is arguably the most vicious song released by Taylor Swift to date, describing a woman who hates Taylor, whom fans speculate to be Charli xcx. Although the backstory is interesting, this song is forgettable because of its lack of creativity within the lyrics and melody, but it is a slight step up compared to a few of the other songs featured on the album. 

“CANCELLED!” is the 10th track on the album, and it describes today’s aggressive cancel culture. The song goes on to narrate how it feels being in the middle of online scandals.  It has a different, more revenge-like tone compared to the rest of her songs on the album. With cliche lines like “Welcome to my underworld where it gets quite dark,” and “I like my whisky sour, poison thorny flowers,”  this basic rhyming and very little originality make it one of her worst songs on the album.

Most people saw this album as a chance for Swift to buck her trademark motif–unremarkable love songs. However, this album seems to reinforce her brand rather than redefine it. Although this album will not go unnoticed, it certainly was not groundbreaking or anything unique compared to other female pop singers coming out with very similar music, such as Oliva Rodrigo or Sabrina Carpenter. As a whole, this album fell short of its expectations, and it might be the death of her career.