By: Charlotte Aver

Taylor Swift’s latest album just dropped on October third, breaking records with tons of streams and a dozen upbeat pop songs.

Track 1: “The Fate of Ophelia” is the lead single of the album and so far the only song with a true music video. The premise of this song is that her love saved her from “The Fate of Ophelia”, which is to go mad and drown herself. This is a love song about her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, however you could argue that part of what saved her from this fate was her tour and fans that kept her afloat in the waters of madness that had she not been saved from, she would have drowned in. This song is a lot of fun to listen to and dance along with. I think that it is quite good but not the best on the album.

Track 2: “Elizabeth Taylor” is a love song told through the lens of Elizabeth Taylor’s life. The tag line of the song is “if your letters ever said goodbye, I’d cry my eyes violet, Elizabeth Taylor”. She references multiple things in Elizabeth Taylor’s life, Musso and Frank, a fine dining restaurant in LA that many celebrities would go to including Elizabeth Taylor. “All my white diamonds and lovers are forever” a lyric from the song referencing the iconic scent made specifically for Elizabeth Taylor. The plaza Athenee was also referenced in this song which is where Elizabeth Taylor stayed for six months in Paris, 1971. Portofino is also mentioned in the song because it’s where Elizabeth Taylor got engaged in 1964. One of the vinyl variants for ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ is called the “Portofino orange glitter vinyl”, further referencing Elizabeth Taylor. This song in my opinion is possibly one of the best songs on the album, the references, the beat, and the lyrics are just so much fun, I feel like I could keep listening to this song and it would never get old.

Track 3: “Opalite” is another love song but from the perspective of things can be hard but it will be alright. “[D]ancing through the lightning strikes, sleepless in the onyx night, but now the sky is opalite”, the message of this song is actually quite cute, that things can be really hard until you find the person who will make your sky “Opalite”. Opalite is a man made opal, so the idea of Opalite being a metaphor for happiness is really saying that happiness doesn’t always come to you, you have to make it for yourself. This song is such a feel good song with a good beat, fun to listen and dance to, and sounds like in a year or two it will be classic and a fan favorite within her discography.

Track 4: “Father Figure” is a song about the relationship of a mentor and mentee told through power dynamics. The song follows the story of how the narrator becomes the father figure of someone who then turns their back on the narrator. “Your thoughtless ambition, sparked the ignition, on foolish decisions, that led to misguided visions, and to fulfill your dreams, you had to get rid of me.” This line tells the story of how the ‘father figure’ was betrayed. The narrator then says “Whose portraits on the mantel? Who covered up your scandals? Mistake my kindness for weakness and find your card cancelled, I was your father figure, you pulled the wrong trigger.” By this response to the betrayal the narrator has told the audience exactly what happens when you take advantage of a father figure. This song is full of angst and revenge and is incredibly fun to listen to.

Track 5: “Eldest Daughter”. Typically track five is the saddest track on the album, and this track is also the longest track, at 4 minutes and 6 seconds. This song is about how now everyone lives a dual life, the performative life for social media and their personal life. It also is about how Taylor has taken her experience as an eldest daughter to how she deals with her fame as an adult. This song is probably the slowest and saddest song on the album.

Track 6: “Ruin the Friendship” is a song about part of her high school experience and how she feels she should’ve kissed the person she liked anyway even though she didn’t. After she graduated and left where she went to high school her friend calls her and tells her that he died, so she travels home with “so much left to say”. This song is so happy and fun until the end, but the song as a whole tells a story quite vividly and I enjoy it.

Track 7: “Actually Romantic” is a song that was expected to be a romantic love song but is actually a song about someone who has put so much effort into her while saying that they hate her. “It’s actually romantic, all the time you’ve spent on me, it’s honestly wild all the effort you put in”. It’s also about finding out about a one sided relationship that she didn’t even know she was in and she ends up thinking it’s actually romantic. This song is rumored to be about Charli XCX. This song is funny and fun and all around is just a good listen.

Track 8: “Wi$h Li$t” is a song about how everyone has really different “wish lists” and different dreams, but she also has her own wants and dreams, and that everyone deserves what they want. “They want it all, and they can have what they want, they deserve what they want, but I just want you”. It also has a lot about how people live their lives really publicly and how we all know what people want. It’s also so fun to listen to.

Track 9: “Wood” is the shortest track on the album, coming at 2 minutes and 30 seconds. “Wood” is a love song about superstitions, and using different superstitions to tell a love story: knock on wood, wish on stars, black cats, stepping on cracks and catching the bouquet. This song doesn’t need much explanation and has some very fun 70s beats.

Track 10: “CANCELLED!” is about being cancelled and then seeing your friends get cancelled and still supporting them. The tagline of the song is “good thing I like my friends cancelled”. This song is also partly about how the media will see people get cancelled and immediately they are persona non grata, but how Taylor will always judge not by what people are saying but by their actions.  This song is full of silent rage and pure angst; these raw emotions make this song really interesting to listen to.

Track 11: “Honey” is a song about how words that have been used to hurt you in the past, but then someone calls you those names sincerely. In the song she has said that people have used honey and sweetheart against her to make her feel bad, “When 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” but now those words have different meanings because those words have been used to make her feel loved. “When anyone called me lovely they were trying to find ways to not praise me, but you say it like you’re in awe of me”. This song is just a bop. It makes you feel good, and is just pure fun to listen to.

Track 12: “The Life of a Showgirl” feat. Sabrina Carpenter is the title track of the album. This song is about a fictional showgirl named Kitty “She made her money being pretty and witty”. The character that Taylor sings the part of goes to see the show with Kitty in it and gets to meet her and Kitty tells her the truth of how the life of a showgirl is not one you want. Then Sabrina Carpenter sings the story of Kitty, “She was a menace, baby of the family in Lenox”. Lenox is a small town in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, Lenox is famous for being home to Tanglewood, a venue that attracts world famous performers. She tells of how Kitty goes to the club promoter to ask if she can be a showgirl and live a magnificent life and then says “But that’s not what showgirls get, they leave us for dead.” They both then go on to sing about the showgirl business and how it’s hard to stay afloat in, “They ripped me off like false lashes and then threw me away”. They both then sing to the character of Kitty “Hey Kitty, now I make my money being pretty and witty”. At the very end of the song they say thank you to the crowd which is a recording of the final night in Vancouver and the final show of the Eras Tour. One detail about this song is the dynamic between cats and dogs, Kitty’s name being Kitty, and calling Taylor, the future performer, a kitten. There is also the mention of the “autograph hounds barking her name” making the connection between performers being cats and the fans being dogs. This song is my absolute favorite of the album from the amazing story telling, to the fact that Sabrina Carpenter is featured and finally that it has actual recordings of the Eras Tour. The whole thing is fantastic to listen to and is a little like being transported somewhere else when you listen to it. If you haven’t listened to it, I highly suggest this song. If you only listen to one song make it this one.

Listen to the album here: https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-life-of-a-showgirl/1838810949