<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" id="isPasted">NEW YORK:&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Taylor Swift&rsquo;s 12th studio album,&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Life of a Showgirl,<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;released Friday, declares that her heir apparent is none other than herself.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Her last album,&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Tortured Poets Department,<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;ended with the cautionary &ldquo;Clara Bow,&rdquo; an allegory that suggested her tenure atop the cultural mainstream was inherited from stars of the past, such as the name-checked Stevie Nicks &mdash; and that a younger generation of female pop performers could soon take her place.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 2025, there are plenty of candidates: Chappell Roan&rsquo;s theatrical style, Olivia Rodrigo&rsquo;s fiery punk-pop feminism, and Sabrina Carpenter&rsquo;s playful sensuality. But in the knotty themes of Friday&rsquo;s&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Life of a Showgirl,<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;best illustrated in the title track, Swift asserts that the baton has not been passed, but rather shared. She is not going anywhere.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;And all the headshots on the walls / Of the dance halls are of the b------ / Who wish I&rsquo;d hurry up and die,&rdquo; she sings with a wink. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m immortal now, baby dolls / I couldn&rsquo;t if I tried.&rdquo; Notably, if she has a chosen successor, it is the album&rsquo;s sole featured guest: Carpenter, who appears on the stomp-clap closer with a newly adopted twang. The mournful lap steel &mdash; the album&rsquo;s most country moment &mdash; accompanies Carpenter&rsquo;s entrance. Country is Swift&rsquo;s past and Carpenter&rsquo;s future.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Suggestive bangers and a &lsquo;New Heights&rsquo; nod <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;If Swift is co-signing Carpenter, she is also learning from her. Carpenter has mastered tight pop songs with an edge; Swift mirrors that energy in the George Michael-interpolating &ldquo;Father Figure&rdquo; and the funky &ldquo;Wood.&rdquo; In the latter, she slyly sings, &ldquo;His love was the key / That opened my thighs.&rdquo; She adds, &ldquo;Girls, I don&rsquo;t need to catch the bouquet / To know a hard rock is on the way.&rdquo; Interwoven are sensual ad-libs and a direct reference to fianc&eacute; Travis Kelce&rsquo;s podcast.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Across a brisk 12 tracks &mdash; restrained compared to her sprawling double albums &mdash;&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Life of a Showgirl<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;mostly fulfills its promise of up-tempo pop &ldquo;bangers.&rdquo; Fans awaiting&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reputation (Taylor&rsquo;s Version)<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;may hear echoes of its essence here, though filtered through the affection of her&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lover<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;era.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As in&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reputation,<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;Swift responds to criticisms head-on. On &ldquo;CANCELLED!&rdquo; and &ldquo;Elizabeth Taylor,&rdquo; she reflects on perception and legacy. &ldquo;Hollywood hates me / You&rsquo;re only as hot as your last hit, baby,&rdquo; she sings. But unlike her past work, love steadies her. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t have fun if I can&rsquo;t have you,&rdquo; she flirts.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Welcome (back) to Sweden <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;For this project, Swift reunited with Swedish producers Max Martin and Shellback, her collaborators on&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Red,<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1989<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;and&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reputation.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;Absent is frequent partner Jack Antonoff. The shift pays off: A decade ago, Swift, Martin and Shellback&rsquo;s experiments reshaped not only her career but mainstream pop itself.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Life of a Showgirl<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;may not feel seismic, it brims with addictive Swiftisms &mdash; wit, literary flourishes and crystalline hooks. Songs like &ldquo;Opalite&rdquo; shimmer with layered harmonies and vintage swing. Meanwhile, &ldquo;The Fate of Ophelia&rdquo; bursts with 1980s-style synth-pop, echoing Robyn and a touch of Lana Del Rey.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fans will find quotable gems, too. On &ldquo;Wi$h Li$t,&rdquo; she pleads, &ldquo;Please God bring me a best friend who I think is hot,&rdquo; before sketching suburban dreams of &ldquo;a couple kids &hellip; a driveway with a basketball hoop.&rdquo;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The dictionary of a showgirl <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;Swift&rsquo;s dense vocabulary dazzles but occasionally overreaches, as in the line-heavy &ldquo;Father Figure,&rdquo; where cleverness outpaces cadence. Elsewhere, she leans too trendy, as in &ldquo;Eldest Daughter,&rdquo; which references &ldquo;trolling,&rdquo; &ldquo;memes&rdquo; and &ldquo;comments,&rdquo; risking quick obsolescence. Still, its acoustic emo balladry &mdash; about &ldquo;terminal uniqueness&rdquo; and deep devotion &mdash; resonates. It contrasts with &ldquo;Actually Romantic,&rdquo; a sharp pop-punk track with echoes of Hayley Williams and boygenius.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Swift has said the album channels her &ldquo;Eras Tour&rdquo; &mdash; a global phenomenon spanning more than three hours of spectacle. On these 12 songs, she captures that glitz with humanity and humor. She does not linger backstage. The show has already begun.

People wait to enter a Spotify pop-up event for Taylor Swift’s album "The Life of a Showgirl" in New York City, U.S., September 30, 2025. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper

Entertainment

Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, released Friday, declares that her heir apparent is none other than herself.

Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ debuts to buzz and early reviews

NEW YORK: Lights, camera, action. Taylor Swift&#39;s 12th studio album, &ldquo;The Life of a Showgirl,&rdquo; arrives Friday. Are you ready for it? Swift announced her latest era back in August, when she began teasing the release. Here&#39;s everything you need to know ahead of its drop date: how to stream, which variants exist, and of course, how the album came together. Enjoy the show! How to listen to Swift&#39;s &ldquo;The Life of a Showgirl&rdquo;&ldquo;The Life of a Showgirl&rdquo; will be available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music. Fans can pre-save the album ahead of its release on Oct. 3. Pre-saving ensures the new music automatically appears in a fan&rsquo;s library the moment it is available. It is also a way for an artist to promote streams ahead of the drop date. On Monday, Spotify announced that Swift&#39;s album surpassed five million pre-saves on its platform to become the most pre-saved album in its history. The previous title holder? Her 2024 album &ldquo;The Tortured Poets Department.&rdquo; In addition to the many streaming options, there will also be a digital-download variant of &ldquo;The Life of a Showgirl&rdquo; available via iTunes, featuring a new cover image and a nearly three-minute &ldquo;exclusive video from Taylor herself detailing inspirations behind the album, labelled &ldquo;A Look Behind the Curtain.&rdquo; What physical variants are there?Target is once again a major partner with Swift. Their stores will carry three CD variants, titled as &quot;It&rsquo;s Frightening,&quot; &ldquo;It&rsquo;s Rapturous&rdquo; and &ldquo;It&rsquo;s Beautiful&rdquo; editions. There is also an exclusive vinyl release, &ldquo;The Crowd Is Your King&rdquo; edition, in &ldquo;summertime spritz pink shimmer vinyl.&rdquo; Many Target locations will remain open past midnight on the day of release for superfans to pick up in real time. There are a number of other vinyl variants as well: &ldquo;The Tiny Bubble in Champagne Collection,&rdquo; which features two vinyl variants described as &ldquo;under bright lights pearlescent vinyl&quot; and &ldquo;red lipstick &amp; lace transparent vinyl.&rdquo; There is also &ldquo;The Baby That&rsquo;s Show Business Collection,&rdquo; in two colorways: &ldquo;lovely bouquet golden vinyl&rdquo; and &ldquo;lakeside beach blue sparkle vinyl.&rdquo; Then there&#39;s &ldquo;The Shiny Bug Collection&rdquo; in &ldquo;violet shimmer marbled vinyl&rdquo; and &ldquo;wintergreen and onyx marbled vinyl.&rdquo; And of course, there is the standard LP and cassette, in &ldquo;sweat and vanilla perfume Portofino orange vinyl.&rdquo; Artwork varies throughout. What do we know about the album so far?Swift partially announced her 12-track new album &ldquo;The Life of a Showgirl&rdquo; on the &ldquo;New Heights&rdquo; podcast hosted by Travis Kelce &mdash; Swift&rsquo;s fianc&eacute; and Kansas City Chiefs tight end &mdash; and his brother, Jason Kelce, the former Philadelphia Eagles center. In the full episode, Swift revealed she worked on the album in Sweden while she was on the &ldquo;Eras Tour&rdquo; &mdash; flying between dates to record, truly embodying the album&rsquo;s title, &ldquo;The Life of a Showgirl.&rdquo; The entire album was completed with producers Max Martin and Shellback, whom Swift previously collaborated with on 2012&#39;s &ldquo;Red,&rdquo; 2014&#39;s &ldquo;1989&rdquo;, and 2017&#39;s &ldquo;Reputation.&rdquo; Her frequent producing partner, Jack Antonoff, was not mentioned. She described the release as full of &ldquo;bangers.&quot; &ldquo;I care about this record more than I can even overstate,&rdquo; she said, agreeing with Travis Kelce when he described the release as &ldquo;a lot more upbeat&rdquo; than 2024&#39;s &ldquo;The Tortured Poets Department.&rdquo; Across the album, there is only one feature listed: the title track, &ldquo;The Life of a Showgirl,&rdquo; will include Sabrina Carpenter.

Taylor Swift’s 12th album The Life of a Showgirl drops Oct. 3 with multiple vinyl variants, a Sabrina Carpenter feature, and upbeat tracks. Recorded during her Eras Tour, it’s her most pre-saved album ever.

Articles tagged with "Album"

Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ debuts to buzz and early reviews

Taylor Swift's 'The Life of a Showgirl' is almost here. Here's what to know