If you like Taylor Swift you probably already know that she had her 13th album release this past weekend. She also had a release party movie about the making of her music video that was playing in theaters at the same time. The movie, the album and her first single all hit number one immediately, making her the first artist since Prince in 1984 to hold the number one spot for a film, album, and song simultaneously in the U.S.
Swift is breaking record after record with her brand new album “The Life of a Showgirl”, and I couldn’t love the album more, starting off with her hit song “The Fate of Ophelia” (TFO). The song has broken many records, including the most streamed song in a single week and the fastest song to reach 100 million streams on Spotify ever.
TFO definitely makes sure the album starts off strong. You would think that a song that has blown up that fast might get overplayed and people would get tired of it, but the opposite has happened with TFO. I haven’t been able to get the song out of my head and I am not mad about it, in fact, I love it. With its extremely catchy beat and amazing lyrics, it has become one of my favorite songs on the entire album.
Through out the album, there are tons of other catchy songs with equally amazing lyrics. Swift is a wonderful poet, and she uses many different literary works in Opalite and Elizabeth Taylor. Opalite is a man made version of an opal which as Swift said can be a metaphor for her happiness being self made as she is comparing her happiness to a gem stone. Not only are the lyrics of these songs beautiful, they are also incredibly catchy and deep.
Swift references William Shakespeare multiple times throughout the album and she begins one of her songs (Wood) with a Jackson 5 introduction. She has a unique ability to connect the past and the present in a fun and relatable way. Most people who hear these songs (who are willing to give them a chance) fall in love with the amazing up beat vibe.
The last song on the album is Life of a Showgirl featuring Sabrina Carpenter. This song describes the life of a showgirl named Kitty and she tells Swift’s character about what it is really like to be a famous showgirl. Kitty describes the reality of show business life as much more difficult than it appears to be.
The ending of the song is from Swift’s perspective, and although show business life is very hard, she says that “she wouldn’t have it any other way.” The outro of the song is from the final night of the Eras tour which has some personal significance to me as that was the show that I attended.
Therefore, I’m pretty much featured in the song. Not only did the final night of the Eras tour get to be a part of the album, but also Swift just announced that she will be releasing a six-episode documentary on the Eras Tour, including behind the scenes footage and the performance from her final night in Vancouver.
I can’t wait to see her new documentary and listen to all of her future albums. In my opinion “The Life of a Showgirl” is the album of the year.
