"Life Of A Showgirl" is here: This is what Taylor Swift's new album sounds like

Swift has been building anticipation for her new album since August 11. On that day, she launched a countdown on her website. She then revealed the name of her twelfth album. The next day, Swift appeared on the podcast "New Heights," hosted by her fiancé Travis Kelce, a football player for the Kansas City Chiefs, and his brother Jason. There, Swift shared that the album was inspired by the joy she felt during her worldwide performances as part of her record-breaking "Eras Tour."

AMC Theatres announced plans to release "The Official Release Party Of A Showgirl," an 89-minute film featuring the first music video for the album "The Fate of Ophelia," behind-the-scenes looks at the filming, and Swift's reflections on the album's songs. The film will be shown from Friday to Sunday in more than 50 markets - including in Austria.

Taylor Swift delivers coolly produced pop anthems on new album

Taylor Swift's workload is fascinating: 18 months after "The Tortured Poets Department" (with no less than 31 songs), the successor created during the "Eras Tour," "The Life Of A Showgirl," was released on Friday. After eight years, the singer has worked again with Max Martin and Shellback. The album offers top-notch pop anthems, diversely written and equally coolly produced. There is no shortage of hits, Swift remains the pop queen.

A reason for the 35-year-old's long-lasting success is certainly that no work is the same as another and yet always sounds like Swift. While "The Tortured Poets Department" was more restrained, somewhat dark, and produced only one single hit with "Fortnight" (featuring Post Malone), "The Life Of A Showgirl" is packed with potential chart-toppers: It starts with the opener "The Fate Of Ophelia" (with an irresistible groove), continues with "Opalite" (an anthemic happy tune to dance to), and ends with the title track, a duet with Sabrina Carpenter.

Not a carbon copy of earlier productions

Despite the return of the Swedish hitmakers Martin and Shellback, "The Life Of A Showgirl" does not sound like a carbon copy of previous successful collaborations like "Red," "1989," or even "Reputation" (but it also lacks their urgency). A multitude of producers were involved in the aforementioned albums, but this time Swift relied solely on the two. Fans will appreciate this step, as most songs are equipped with captivating beats, but are never overproduced or following a single formula.

"Elizabeth Taylor" comes across bombastically, "CANCELLED!" as a dancefloor killer, and "Ruin The Friendship" relaxes with a Fleetwood Mac groove, "Eldest Daughter" as a ballad. "Actuelly Romantic" (in which Swift spits venom, already interpreted by fans as a reaction to Charli XCX's "Sympathy Is A Knife") shows a different side: guitars, drums, indie-pop-rock influences. All tracks never leave the pop standard format, yet offer variety and wonderful hooks within it. And Swift remains a master of the bridge, which she underscores not only (but especially) with the title track.

Swift and Carpenter in Duet

Speaking of which: "The Life Of A Showgirl" brings the superstars Swift and Carpenter together. Their voices blend perfectly, mixed at equal volume (which was not the case with "Snow On The Beach" with Lana Del Rey in the original mix on the album "Midnights") - the perfect conclusion to an album that, although produced in high gloss, also offers more sparsely instrumented and arranged tracks and gives Swift's voice plenty of space.

"This album is about what was happening behind the scenes in my inner life during this tour, which was so exuberant, electrifying, and vibrant," Swift announced on her fiancé Travis Kelce's podcast. That's exactly how "The Life Of A Showgirl" sounds: electrifying. Some songs may not quite maintain the otherwise high quality, but that does not detract from the overall impression. There is also not much room for fillers, with an unusually short runtime for Swift of just over 40 minutes, the album is not bloated. The task of interpreting the lyrics is left to the Swifties.

(By Wolfgang Hauptmann/APA)

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