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.