At 11:59 on October 12th, 2025, thousands of Swifties, including myself, waited with bated breath for the drop of “The Life of a Showgirl”. Taylor Swift’s 12th album features, fittingly, 12 songs, a shorter record compared to the 31 songs of her previous album, “The Tortured Poets Department”. With my headphones on, my Notes app open on my laptop, and my finger refreshing my Apple Music page over and over, I was ready to jot down my first impressions of the album.
My first impression was, unfortunately, disappointment. Though my view of the album has since improved, I cannot pretend that I enjoyed most of it initially. As I look back at my Notes app to recall my thoughts from that night, phrases like “What are we even talking about?”, “You did not just say ‘girl boss’”, and “I just want to pretend this album doesn’t exist” stand out. Harsh? A bit.
Over the following week, I tried to make myself enjoy the album. If the songs weren’t lyrically on par with “folklore” or “TTPD”, they were at least catchy. I’d catch myself humming Wood and Wi$h Li$t in the car, or at school, and realize they didn’t offend me so much after all.
Here, I’ve compiled my glows and grows from the album: the songs that I enjoyed immediately, and the ones that grew on me over the month.
GLOW: Elizabeth Taylor
By a twist of fate and possibly Apple Music crashing, “Elizabeth Taylor” was the first song I listened to on the album. The slow, crooning intro contrasted with the banging chorus left me hooked. I thought the reference to actress Elizabeth Taylor’s iconic gaze (“If your letters ever said goodbye, I’d cry my eyes violet”) was a nice blend of punny and subtle. It is also one of the few songs on the album that corresponds with the album title and seems straight out of a showgirl’s diary. Truthfully, “Elizabeth Taylor” left me with high expectations that lowered as the album went on.
GROW: Father Figure
The beginning of this song is reminiscent of Taylor’s usual storytelling writing, with detailed imagery and fun metaphors (“turned your rags into gold”). Where she lost me, and many other listeners, was the chorus. The line, “I can make deals with the devil because my d***’s bigger,” felt unnecessary and turned me off the song. However, it was one of those that kept getting stuck in my head, and eventually I gave it another chance. My favorite part of the song quickly became the sinister line, “You’ll be sleeping with the fishes before you know you’re drowning,” and the glorious key change following it. Swift herself mentioned how proud she is of that key change on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, and I have to agree. I can overlook the d*** line if we get more musical cinema like that.
GLOW: The Fate of Ophelia
This song is a shining star on TLOAS: the first track, the only music video, and the reference to the character from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which sparked much online discussion before the album was released. The music video itself was a massive production, including nine distinct outfits and impressive scenes such as Swift as a pirate queen tossed into the ocean. The dance that Swift introduced in the music video to the lyrics, “Keep it one hundred on the land, the sea, the sky,” immediately became a sensation and added to the energy of the pop track.
GROW: Honey
What turned me off this song initially was the writing (a trend throughout the album). I had gone in expecting a track similar to “Sweet Nothing”, a soft love song reminiscent of winter. “Honey” is definitely more straightforward, though, with the refrain literally being, “You can call me honey if you want because I’m the one you want.” As I continued to listen to the song, I began to appreciate the vivid imagery Swift included: “Wintergreen kiss, all mine” and “Buy the paint in the color of your eyes”. It’s one of those songs that gets stuck in your head, and it’s honestly refreshing to hear Swift happy after some of the darker songs on TTPD.
In the context of Swift’s discography, The Life of a Showgirl was definitely more of a grow album than an immediate glow. The more I listen to it, the more I find I’m able to overlook any cringeworthy lyricism in favor of the catchiness of the songs. I’m still learning to appreciate Swift’s more direct style of songwriting, and hope the album continues to grow on me as time goes on.
