After months of excitement from a loyal fanbase, Taylor Swift’s newest album released on Friday, Oct. 3rd. Swift announced her album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” on a podcast with her fiancé Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce. Swift’s intended sentiment behind the album was to share the experience of being on a world tour while falling in love, maintaining a social life and handling family relations. The album is a collection of 18 songs Swift chose that she feels are representative of this lifestyle.

 After revealing the album cover, fans began to hypothesize a jazz-styled album, paying homage to other modern artists like Laufey. This theory came from the released album photoshoot that sent messages of a 1920’s speakeasy; these images featured Swift in traditional flapper attire while also celebrating the artists of the ‘20’s.

 Self-proclaimed “Swifties” have mixed feelings about the album, as it not only does not bring this feeling but also allegedly “rehashes” drama with fellow music artist Charli XCX. 

This theory comes from track seven on the album, “Actually Romantic,” where Swift details an anonymous conflict saying that the obsession is heartfelt.

 “It’s actually romantic/You’ve just given me so much… attention.” 

Fans of both Swift and Charli XCX began to theorize that this song is directed at XCX after she briefly mentioned Swift in her hit album “brat” in the song “Sympathy is a Knife,” where the singer details her insecurities surrounding Swift. 

Outside of the pop culture development between Swift and XCX coming from this track, it also demonstrates Swift’s ever changing style of music.

Sadly, this sentiment does not carry through the album. Each track features beats that have been described as hard to differentiate, with some even being accredited to other artists, such as the Jackson 5. 

A long carried tradition through each album published by Swift is her infamous track five, often these songs are noted to be the most emotional on the album. On “The Life of a Showgirl,” track five is a song titled “Eldest Daughter.”

Once the tracklist was released, fans immediately began to “claim” this track as their own as the wait began. Now that the track is finally released, fans are immensely disappointed. The lyrics presented in the song lack emotional depth and instead seem to target the ever changing slang on social media.

“Every joke’s just trolling and memes/Sad as it seems, apathy is hot.”

These lyrics demonstrate Swift’s evolution of music as she leaves behind her usual poetic lyrics and instead puts in an effort to be seen as trendy by the younger audiences she captured in the past with her other recent album “Midnights.”

This album, originally meant to capture the feeling of being on a world tour and balancing falling in love, has instead begun to capture what feels like Swift’s race against time during a transition from “Worlds Biggest Popstar” to the end of an old generation of pop. 

While the album has generated large success for Swift through 680.9 million streams, but also through the accompanying movie that successfully reached the top of the box office, the album is said to be one of her worst. The writing style fails to emulate what Swift has been known for in the past and instead leaves an empty industry catering feeling, in place of the normal heart-touching cadence Swift normally delivers.