Album Review - Taylor Swift: The Life Of A Showgirl

I started a blog post a few weeks ago about Sabrina Carpenter's new album but I couldn't put into words what I thought of the album.

That is not at all the case with Taylor Swift's The Life Of A Showgirl, her 12th album. 

I will start by saying that I went into this album release with absolutely no expectations other than knowing it would be a happy album, with only 12 songs and that my favourite Taylor Swift albums are The Tortured Poets Department and Red (Taylor's Version).

I like 1989 but it is not my favourite album and there were comparisons to that before The Life Of A Showgirl was released just a few hours ago.

I'm going to do a track by track review.

The Fate Of Ophelia

It starts with a drum beat before going into a more mellow vibe. It's obviously about Travis Kelce. I think it's a great choice for the first single and the chorus is raw and vulnerable with her singing, "You dug me out of my grave/and from the fate of Ophelia". The beat in this song is generally speaking very catchy and I can't fault it.

Elizabeth Taylor

Apparently this was the first song written for the album and there is some anxiety about her relationship with Travis, but given it was the first song written that means it was written in the early stages of their relationship. I can't fault the beat or production in this song either. It's a little bit slower than The Fate Of Ophelia. She reflects on her past relationships in the song. 

Opalite

This has a drum beat but lyriucally it's not strong. It's very simple compared to her last few albums and almost feels like a dumbed down version of her music. I do like the pitch transitions. They are the best part of the song. It is of course another Travis song.

Father Figure

Father Figure is one of my favourite songs on the album. I would say it's a down tempo song compared to the rest of the album. I like the lyrics and again, Taylor's pitch transitions are strong. Her lyrics on this song are also quite weak with "my dick's bigger". That lyric just feels really cheap and tacky.

Eldest Daughter

I went into this song with no expecations but it's also one of my preferred songs on the album. I like the piano in it. It's a track 5 so of course it's a deeper song. She sings about how she struggles with fame and wanting to eet people's expectations. It could have easily been on Reputation or written while she was trying to re-record Reputation - before she bought back her masters. The lyrics, "You know, thе last time I laughed this hard was/On the trampoline in somebody's backyard/I must've been about eight or nine". Again, her singing is very strong on this track.

Ruin the Friendship

I wasn't expecting to like this song but it's also one of my faves and is about how Taylor learned of the death of a guy she went to high school with and that she wishes she'd kissed him. It's about making the most of the chances you have. It's one of the more relatable songs on the album. This could have easily been track 5 for that reason as it's a major plot twist in the song. 

Actually Romantic

It's a sarcastic diss track. I like the lyric, "Boring Barbie" and I like that it's sarcastic and basically her singing "fuck you" to someone she really hates. I think most people can relate to hating someone. I would say this is a more adult version of "Bad Blood", "Mad Woman" and "Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me?"  The production of the song is very strong.

Wi$h Li$t

This is my least favourite song on the album. She sings about how she doesn't want fame or money. She just wants Travis. I get that some people are annoyed about this song because it's tone deaf but she just has a different set of problems now. The production on the song is good but again, the lyrics are weak. The chorus also has weird production.

Wood

It's an uptempo song.  She sings about how she doesn't have to worry about her relationship with Travis because she knows it's foever. Remember, this was written BEFORE they got engaged. In this song it's almost like she's gloating about her relationship. Again, the lyrics are not her usual standard and in some areas are really cheap and tacky.

CANCELLED!

This could also have been on Reputation or inspired when she was trying to record the Reputation. It's as though this is the other side of Reputation and she doesn't care. I do like the reference to Charmed with "something wicked this one comes". The production on the song is brilliant and I like that she's using her higher register again.  The song seems to be about her friends.

Honey

Another love song to Travis. the note transitions and higher register suits her voice way more than when she used the lower register on her last few albums but it's yet another cringey song that doesn't have lyrics that are her usual standard.

The Life Of A Showgirl (Featuring Sabrina Carpenter)

I was edpecting this song to have a more country vibe based on the leaked lyrics I had seen. Lyrically I like it. It's written like a country song but doesn't have country production at all. It's yet another song that's unrelatable. Sasbrina has more of a feature than Lana Del Rey did on Snow On The Beach.

In short, the production on this album is flawless and every song is upbeat. Lyrically it is her weakest work ever. Given I LOVE The Tortured Poets Department I wasn't expecting to love this album but it feels like this album was just written for the industry and wasn't written for the long term fans. Anyone who cares about lyrics is going to be disappointed and it's missing that x factor that makes Taylor albums so good. It's just not relatable and that's a major issue with this release. It does get better with each listen though but she's lost her edge lyrically, at least on this album. I knew Travis would stunt her creatively and she said that in interviews years ago that she wasn't sure if she could write when she was happy. This album answers that question.

It will win Album of the Year at the Grammys in 2026 but it really shouldn't because it's too short, not relatable and just doesn't have any long term hook. All that said though, I've had it on repeat since it was released so on some level I must like it but it really feels like a dumbed down version of Taylor and it is also way too short. 12 songs is nowhere near enough. The album feels like it was written for the general public and the reviewers not the actual Swifties.

I can reluctantly only give it a 3/5 because it's lyrically weak and Travis has stunted her creativity. Joe and Matty were much better muses than Travis.  

I don't want her to be unhappy but I would love to know what a divorce album would sound like. I think it'd be brilliant and it would have way stronger lyrics. For more context, my favourite Taylor albums are Red (Taylor's Version) and The Tortured Poets Department so it's no wonder this isn't my favourite album. I am glad she worked with Max Martin and Shellback though and that she's finally using her higher register again but Travis has stunted her and she's dumbed herself down for him and the industry who didn't understand The Tortured Poets Department (yet that was the album that should have won Album of the Year).

Album ranking:

1 - The Tortured Poets Department

2 - Red (Taylor's Version)

3 - Taylor Swift

4 - Lover

5 - Reputation

6 - 1989

7 - Folklore

8 - Fearless

9 - Speak Now

10 - Midnights

11 - The Life Of A Showgirl

12 - Evermore 

 

Taylor and Travis's engagement announcement

You would have to have been living under a rock this week to not have heard the news that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged. The announcement was made in a low key Instagram post where she referred to herself as an English teacher and Travis is a gym teacher. 

 

A lot of Swifties have been rooting for this engagement since they first announced their relationship in 2023 after he famously wasn't able to give her a friendship bracelet at the Eras Tour. Afterwards they met and the rest is history.

For the record I found out at about 6am when I woke up to a message from one of my Swiftie friends so I immediately went to Taylor's Instagram page to see if it was real. I have this rule where I don't believe anything about her unless she herself announces it. This is why I am not fooling for the rumours about her doing a half time show at the Super Bowl or a Vegas residency and the fact she is simply way too big, but more about that in another blog. 

Waking up to the announcement came right after I'd had a dream about Taylor. She was in the Tortured Poets dress and then suddenly the song, But Daddy I Love Him came on in the dream. IYKYK so to wake up to this news was almost a premonition.

On the 13th of August, Taylor went on Travis and Jason Kelce's New Heights podcast, and while I've thought their relationship was a PR stunt in the beginning it became clear to me that simply because she chose to merge her career with her relationship that it was more than likely end game.  There's simply no way she would have announced her new album, The Life Of A Showgirl on the podcast if it wasn't going to be forever and always. 

There is speculation about the exact timing of the engagement. I personally believe that they were already engaged when they filmed the podcast and had been a short time but like other fans have said, they wanted to wait to announce it. 

I don't want to comment too much on her exes like Joe Alwyn and Matty Healy who inspired The Tortured Poets Department or Jake Gyllenhaal but I can imagine that Joe in particular has been having a rough day because he kept her locked in the basement for six years and didn't let her shine like Travis and his family does.  

So what music can we expect on The Life Of A Showgirl?

Well, on the podcast Taylor and Travis both said that the album was full of absolute bangers which isn't surprising since it was produced by Max Martin and Shellback who are the masterminds behind some of the 90s and 2000s biggesthits like Britney Spears' Baby One More Time, Backstreet Boys' I Want It That Away and Katy Perry's Hot 'n Cold, plus many others.

There are of course questions about her future music given we clearly won't get anymore heartbreak songs for a while, but that's not to say the music won't be relateable. Taylor's written about her grandparents, friendship, fame, success and sickness in the past so I'm sure she will still be inspired to write. We can expect a very different tone to previous albums though and I guess the last song on The Tortured Poets Department, The Manuscript really did say it all - to move forward she had to look backward.  

When it comes to their wedding, while I would love for it to be televised, and believe me, I would take the day off for it I don't think it will be. I can only say that I hope that fans don't try and crash the wedding. Taylor made it very clear in But Daddy I Love Him that we will not be invited, so like the engagement, I hope they get married privately and then they share the photos in their own time, much like Delta Goodrem did when she recently got married to Matthew Copley.

I've had many convos with friends today about this engagement and we're all pretty much set on them having children together. All of that said, I have had at least one friend say they should have kids immediately because having kids older is hard. I hate to break it to people but Taylor is a literal billionaire. She probably froze her eggs years ago and she and Travis and can afford all the help they need. It's not going to be hard for them. In saying that though, whether or not she and Travis have kids is none of our business but if they do I can imagine her naming a daugther Andrea and/or Marjorie after her mother and late grandmother respectively. It's like Taylor sung about in Lavender Haze, people really need to stop projecting their own beliefs onto her. If, and when they have kids (and let's not discount that they may have fertility issues like Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox) is up to them, and people saying they should do it immediately need their heads checked. This is the year 2025 and people are having kids later in life, even into their 40s, but with the money they have, they can wait as long as they want. I personally think though that she won't want to jeopardise her music career, which is what having kids could do. A lot of her fans are kids themselves and so if she were to write songs about motherhood it may not be as relatable and could harm her career. That said, I do not subscribe to theories that she will quite music. Music is way too important to her to do something like that. If anything she would likely have paid help and Travis would step in, but in 2025 women, especially billionaires like Taylor do not need to quit working just because they get married. I can't believe people are actually still staying rubbish like this.

Another logistical thing is that I really hope they both get a prenup. They have worked way too hard over the last couple of decades to not protect their intellectual property and after what she went through with her masters she would be foolish not to get a prenup. 

What can we learn from their love story? It's really quite simple. It is better to stay single than to be with the wrong guy and you should never settle for anything less than the best. The fact Taylor was in a relationship with Joe Alwyn for six years and he wasn't once proud or happy to be with her, and locked her in the basement and never proposed showed that he didn't see her as the one. If he'd wanted to marry her he would've. The reality is, nobody is going to find love on dating apps, if they can even be called that. Apps like Tinder are just hook up apps and they are devaluing relationships and dehumanising personal interactions. That may be a sign of the times. In the mid 2000s, dating culture was so much better than it currently is. I'm still not Travis's biggest fan but the majority of guys could take a leaf out of his book on how to get the girl. 

The other thing to add is that while Swifties are known for being a little parasocial (we label Taylor our emotional support popstar and our close personal friend, even though 99.99999999999999% have never met her). we are so excited about this because we've watched Taylor be heartbroken over the last 20 years and we've all had a Jake or a Joe in our lives. Her engagement announcement gives us all hope that if she can find love in her 30s then maybe the rest of us can too. Maybe there is no set timeframe and that it happens at the right time for YOU.  

And ladies, it is so much better to be single than to be with the wrong guy, so don't settle for less than what you deserve and that includes not sacrificing your hopes, dreams or career for any man, no matter how much you think he's the one. So to steal a quote from Sex and the City, the most important relationship you have is the one with yourself. Work on that first. I think it's very clear that's exactly what Taylor did when she was writing The Tortured Poets Department (which I still maintain, should have won a Grammy for Album of the Year).

5ive reunion tour coming downunder in 2026

The year was 1997, and record industry mogul Simon Cowell was on the hunt for the next big boyband. Auditions were held around the UK and out of 3,000 hopefuls, Jason "J" Brown, Abz Love, Ritchie Neville, Scott Robinson and Sean Conlon were picked to form the brand that was dubbed the male version of the Spice Girls. 

Things moved at lightening speed and they released their first album to critical aclaim. Their next album, Invincible followed with the major hit, Keep on Movin'.

The brand then embarked on a worldwide tour, which included Australia and New Zealand. At the time I was a teenager and was a major fan. They were the UK version of the Backstreet Boys  so when they announced their tour I had to go to it. I wound up going with my mum. 

Throughout high school I was a major radio station listener, to the point where I would skip out on school camps to listen to the radio. because I listened to the radio sco much and knew the announcers I was granted the opportunity to attend the interview on my trip to Auckland. The interview was held at the Sheraton Hotel on Symonds Street in the CBD. Only Sean, Abz and J were present and while I don't remember much about the interview I remember being incredibly starstruck and I remember only being allowed to get two items signed even though I'd taken all of my CDs. I still have those signed CDs today as you can see below.

 

 

About a year after the 2000 tour, the band released their third album, Kingsize but unfortunately due to the pressures of fame and internal conflicts the band split up. 

Over the years there have been some attempts to reunite but nothing solid ever happened, with J and Abz not particpating. Last year Scott, Ritchie and Sean toured Australia and New Zealand. I was going to go to the tour and did at one point have a ticket but it just wouldn't have been the same as a trio rather than a quintet.

Then fast forward to a few months ago and they announced that all five of them would be touring the UK and Ireland. 

Over the last few months I've been talking a lot about Five in acting, not even knowing that they'd reuinted and were planning a tour. Then a few weeks ago they teased an Australian and NZ tour and so I started thinking about getting my ticket. You may even say I manifested the Five tour like I manifested being front row at Taylor Swift during the Eras Tour as I'd talked about in an earlier blog that I posted in 2019 (for clarity, the Eras Tour wasn't conceived in 2019, but I said back then I'd be front row at her next tour, and then miraculously a front row ticket fell into my lap - A blog about The Eras Tour will come at some point. Just briefly though I went to all seven shows. I got extremely, extremely, extremely lucky. I'm getting sidetracked, but getting back to Five, maybe I'll be able to manifest meeting Five again...They have been on my mind a lot lately, even before the tour was announced.

Today the pre-sale commenced and of course I got my ticket. Five were the first ever international band I saw in concert and I was lucky enough to meet three of them when I was a teenager. I wish I'd had a photo taken but I was more concerned with getting an autograph as that was the big thing in the early 2000s.

I've been trawling through old and new interviews and there are no plans for new music but you never know what will happen in the future.

Anyway it got me thinking about One Direction, who are the most recent big boy band.  Of course on 16 October 2024, Liam Payne died so One Direction fans will never have the chance to attend a reunion tour like Five fans can and that's really sad for them.

My final comments in this blog are that if your favourite band is touring you should go because you never know if it will be the last opportunity to see them live. I am also so excited to be reliving the early 2000s and seeing Five live in concert again.

They are playing several shows in Australia and New Zealand. The one I'm attending is at the ICC Sydney Theatre on Saturday 16 May 2026. Tickets are available through Ticketek Australia for the Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth show and Ticketek New Zealand for the Auckland show.

The sexual assault and downfall of Britney Spears

Before Taylor Swift there was Britney Spears. Throughout the late 90s and early 2000s, she was the Princess of Pop and everyone loved her. She was on track to become the next Madonna. Unfortunately though, as the saying goes, what goes up, must come down and that was exactly the case with the girl from Kentwood Louisiana.

Her debut album, Baby One More Time came out in January 1999 and hit the top five in a number of countries. It was followed up with Oops!...I did it again, which went to number one in several countries. She was on top of the world and was on track to become the next Madonna.

Unfortunately, things started to go downhill in 2002 after she broke up with Justin Timberlake and culminated with her shaving her head in 2007 after her very public break up with Kevin Federline, who had clearlly been using her. There is an interview on The Ellen Show where you can clearly see that he did not truly care about her and that he was using her. 

That's not my issue though. My issue is the way the media treated her and I'm not just talking about the paparazzi absolutely hounding her when she was mentally ill. I'm talking about the way the media literally sexualised a teenager. 

An example of an inappropriate interview is from UK journalist, Frank Skinner who showed him pictures of himself in his underwear that she hadn't asked to see. It amounts to sexual harassment. There was also an interview with Diane Sawyer where she was asked if she was a virgin. Now I know the 90s were a very different time but in what world is it okay to ask a total stranger, let alone a teenager about their sexual activity? 

The really sad thing is that when Britney first burst onto the stage she was so happy and polite. She was generally thrilled to be doing what she was and then over the years that spark slowly begun to fade until teh light was completely gone.

The downfall of Britney Spears got me thinking about why current Queen of Pop Taylor Swift was able to rise above her being cancelled in 2016-2018 after Kanye West and Kim Kardashian exploited her. I can only put it down to one thing. The difference between Britney Spears and Taylor Swift is that Taylor Swift has always had a family that supports her, genuinely supports her and wants the best for her. Britney Spears never had that. If she had then things might have been very different.

Britney's memoir The Woman In Me which she released in 2023 reveals that Britney's father was an alcoholic and that she grew up in a poor household. One can only assume that Britney's family exploited her and used her talent to try and get out of poverty.

If Britney Spears had burst onto the pop scene today there is no way she would've been sexualised like she was. The paparazzi wouldn't have been able to harass her like they did back then and it would've been recognised that Britney was having a very normal reaction to a long time relationship breaking up and her favourite aunt dying.

The downfall of Britney Spears needs to be a lesson to all of us on how not to treat popstars and we need to remember that they are human just like us and go through ups and downs like we all do. 

And Just Like That season finale review

Okay, let's talk about what can only be described as the worst series finale that I have ever watched - the And Just Like That series finale, which was a spin off of Sex and the City.

I didn't watch Sex and the City during the original run between 1998 and 2004. I only began watching after a group of friends dragged me kicking and screaming to the Sex and the City movie, which was fantastic. I then got into the TV show and identify as a Samantha. When the second movie came out in 2010, despite negative reviews I liked it. I thought it stayed true to all the characters.

Now fast forward to 2022 and we have And Just Like That. Obviously the social climate is different than things were back in 2010. People now expect diverse casts even if the diversity is at the expense of the stories.

That's exactly what happened with And Just Like That. There was a lot of controversy around the character Che played by Sara Ramirez, who had a relationship with Miranda who had been married to Steve. Those who watched the original Sex and the City would also know that she was not lesbian as established very early on in season 1. That was one of the many issues. After season 2, Che was written out to the delight of fans.  I didn't mind Che personally. I thought the character was okay.

I liked the introduction of Seema. She was the closest thing to Samantha's replacement we got, however we never really got to see her interact with Miranda and Charlotte. It was always Carrie. We did see her have flings before getting involved with Adam the gardener at the end of seaason 3. 

I did however have an issue with killing Big off in the first episode of the reboot and I did have an issue with all the storylines that made it out like the characters were old and past their use by date.  I found that to be offensive.

I also had an issue with the way the series tried to have obese people, gay people, trans people etc. Basically they tried to tick every box they could. Now I don't have an issue with those communities, but I do have an issue with that type of stuff being rammed down our faces, especially in a non-realistic way, which is what it was. I also had a major issue with the way Aidan completely disrespected Carrie in season 3. Eventually they broke up towards the end of the series to everyone's pleasure. Some people have said that Aidan was ruined in the spin off and I would have to disagree. Aidan always had an issue with Carrie. Right from their first meeting he wanted her to change. When he found out she was a smoker he said he couldn't date a smoker. He never got over his trust issues when she cheated with Big.

That's not my issue though. My issue comes with the last three episodes of the series. 

In the 10th episode there were so many new storylines set up - Harry got diagnosed with Cancer, Miranda was possibly relapsing back into alcoholism, Charlotte was having vertigo issues, Seema got involved with Adam, Lisa Todd Wexley was going to have an affair with her editor, Marion and Brady ended up getting Mia pregnant, yet none of those stories gets any type of resolution. I also had an issue with what happened to Carrie's old apartment. While it's true you can never go back and the writers probably wanted us to say goodby to the apartment that was not the right way to say goodbye.

Those aren't my biggest issues though.

My biggest issue is the way the final episode was handled. 

Did we really need to have charactures at a Thanksgiving dinner with more airtime than the main girls? Did we really need to have scenes of men literally peeing and did we need to have a toilet mishap scene? It was just distasteful and showed the writers didn't care about the characters or have any knowledge of the original series and that they did not respect the audience - those scenes should have been cut immediately and not even made it past the original script writing process.

It also showed that Sarah Jessica Parker and Michael Patrick King did not intend to end the series at the end of season 3 and that there were plans to produce a season 4. Season 3 had been the best season out of all of them in the reboot. 

I didn't mind the final scene where Carrie was dancing and content with being alone but not lonely.

If it had been up to me to write the episode I would have done the Thanksgiving episode with EVERYONE there, including Anthony and Guiseppe, Miranda and Joy, Charlotte, Harry and their kids, Brady, Steve and Miranda (not the awful crew that had more airtime than the main characters), Lisa Todd Wexley and her family; and of course Seema and Adam.

Then I would have cut to a final scene the next day of Charlotte, Miranda, Carrie and Seema having coffee at their usual coffee shop and a text from Samantha saying she was sorry she couldn't make Thanksgiving and that she's flying out tomorrow.

The finale of And Just Like That forgot what the original premise of the series was which is: Men may come and go but your friends are always there, no matter what happens.

All of this said, I hope that by some miracle another network picks it up for season 4 so that isn't the actual finale of a show that was once great. 

Taylor Swift - The Life Of A Showgirl album announcement thoughts

After the conclusion of The Eras Tour it was hard to know what Taylor Swift would do next. Unless you've been living under a rock you'd know that she announced her new album, The Life Of A Showgirl this week, which will be her 12th studio album.

Before I start talking about The Life Of A Showgirl, I first need to talk about the re-records, her previous album - The Tortured Poets Department, The Eras Tour, the Karma theories and her relationship with NFL star, Travis Kelce.

In all honesty I'm not really sure where to begin because it all ties in together.  As we know she had been with British actor, Joe Alwyn for 6 years and broke up with him a short time after The Eras Tour had commenced in the US. She then had a brief relationship with The 1975 musician, Matty Healy. After those two relationships ended she announced when she was accepting the Album of the Year Grammy for Midnights that her 11th studio album would be coming out on the 19th of April, 2024. When the album was released it initially had 17 tracks and then a few hours later, the second half, The Anthology was released with a further 14 tracks bringing the total to 31 tracks all together.

Critics slammed the album as being too long and that it wasn't "sonically cohesive" which is a call back to what they said about Red, which was released in 2012.  I completely disagree with that and it's not just because I'm a Taylor Swift fan. I don't think an album can possibly ever be "too long" and why would you want a short album from an artist you like? That aside, the melodies and lyrics are absolutely incredible. Bottom line is that I just think that the critics couldn't handle the lyrical genuis that went into the album and didn't understand, or want to get to know the themes which were relationships, fame, friendship, fantasy, the past and the future. 

If you look at the charts in most countries other artists, if they can even be called that are writing superficial lyrics with terrible melodies. A case in point is the success of K-Pop Demon Hunters, which isn't even a real band. Sure the beat is good but as I once said to someone when I had just turned 18, the lyrics are the most important part of the music. That is why my favourite song of all time is All Too Well Ten Minute Version.

Moving on from The Tortured Poets Department and onto The Eras Tour. The Eras Tour was the biggest tour of all time and grossed over $2 billion over the two years that it was performed. It was hard to know if Tayor Swift would be able to out perform that tour because of how successful it was. It was the hottest ticket around in 2023 and 24 (and yes I had tickets to all 7 Australian shows, including Melbourne night 3 which was front row - which was a goal of mine since 2019). 

After The Eras Tour Swifties were expecting the announcement of Reputation (Taylor's Version) or Taylor Swift/Debut (Taylor's Version) but instead we got the announcement that she had bought back her masters, which had been something she'd wanted to own ever since she started making music. 

With that news came the question, "So when will we get our next Taylor Swift album?"

Well it turns out that Taylor had been flying back and forth between Sweden and where she was performing when she was in Europe to work with renowned producers Max Martin and Shellback on her 12th studio album. For those who don't know Max Martin, he worked with Britney Spears on her debut album, Baby One More Time and other artists like Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry, Pink and many more. He also worked with Taylor Swift on Red, 1989 and Reputation. 

Taylor's 12th studio album is titled The Life Of A Showgirl, and unlike The Tortured Poets Department it has only 12 songs, which marks a departure from her last four albums which had at least 16 songs. It is also the shortest album in her entire discography and I have to say I'm disappointed about that. I favour longer albums, especially when it's from my favourite artist. 12 songs feels way too light.  Despite that I cannot wait for the release on the 3rd of October.

What do I expect from the album? I genuinely have absolutely no idea what to expect however before the announcement I did expect Sabrina Carpenter to feature on the album and that was confirmed this week. She features on the closing track, The Life Of A Showgirl, which based on the leaks I've seen I expect to be a country song. Before anyone says "you shouldn't look at leaks" - I always pre-order her albums before they are officially released so there is actually no loss. It doesn't affect that purchase. 

I wish the album was going to be longer but Taylor has explicitly said that the album is 12 songs and that there are no bonus tracks or future releases. That does not mean that the 13th album isn't being released soon. I expect she's already working on her 13th album and that we can expect it towards the end of 2026 or early 2027.

I'm not sure if she will tour this album because it's only 12 songs and The Eras Tour was massive. If she doesn't tour The Life Of A Showgirl then I do expect she'll tour her 13th album which would mean the next your would be around 2027-2028 but it's really hard to predict especially when there are rumours that she's going to do a Vegas Residency. Personally I think she is way too big to do that and I also think the rumours of her doing a Superbowl half time performance are just ridiculous. She's way too big for that too.

In terms of the one theory I do believe in. I do suspect that some of the songs on The Life Of A Showgirl were written as far back as the 1989 era and I do believe that this album was supposed to come after Midnights as TS11, but of course with her two heartbreaks so close together she had to record The Tortured Poets Department. I believe this because of the use of the colour orange and also because of the album cover and themes sung about on the album. I don't think we'll ever have this theory confirmed or denied but we'll find out on album release day.

It also gets on my nerves when people are amazed she was able to write and record while on tour. To those people I have to say this is her full time job. Of course she was able to. The reason why she is the number 1 artist in the world is because of how hard she works. 

Lastly, I'm still not Travis Kelce's biggest fan but there is absolutely no way that this is a PR relationship and if it's not end game I would be bloody surprised.

I'll post again when the album is out on the 3rd of October.