The Life of a Showgirl Flopped

Swift has lost her touch

Ryan Rolle, A&E Editor

October 14, 2025

Album cover of Swift’s new album

The Life of a Showgirl was the most disappointing album release of the year. Months of photoshoots, easter eggs, vinyl releases, just for one of the most dated and corny albums Swift has put out. Between the shade at other successful females, the tacky song about her new fiancée and the bad lyricism, this release was a miss.

When the title “The Life of a Showgirl” was first revealed, I instantly pictured a timeless jazzy album. Fans speculated about a whole album that has the vibes of “False God,” but instead we got new mediocre pop. To make it very clear, I have been a longtime fan of Swift, particularly Folklore and Evermore, but this album generally feels lazy.

The first song that I really noticed was “Eldest Daughter.” As an eldest daughter, I was drawn to the idea and hoped for an emotional and vulnerable track 5. The last thing I could have expected were the lyrics “so we all dressed up as wolves and we looked fire.” The vocals and the melody are truly enjoyable, I feel like Swift was building something really special yet didn’t take the time to perfect it.

Another very noticeable song for me was “Actually Romantic,” which by now the internet has discovered is a major diss at Charli XCX. This was extremely disappointing, as Charli’s song was more about feeling insecure in the music industry and Swift took it personally. After years of Swift preaching kindness to others and writing a lot about feeling insecure herself, I was surprised to see that she could be so catty and mean.

The final song that really stuck out was “Wood.” My take is that Swift tried to do a Sabrina-Carpenter-esque song and it ended up coming off as tacky. After Swift’s truly epic love songs about Joe Alwyn, it’s clear who was a better muse for her music. Overall, it feels like Alwyn inspired Swift to be a better person and instilled morals within her and her music. It seems like she is really happy with Kelce, yet ever since its gotten serious Swift has been politically tone deaf and lost her position as a girl’s girl.

I hope Swift can get back to her roots in the albums to come, however I definitely won’t be buying any of the 100 vinyl variants she’s released for this album.

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About the Contributor

Ryan Rolle, A&E Editor

Ryan Rolle is a senior at Robinson and is the A&E editor for the Knight Writers. This is her third year on staff. Rolle decided to join Knight Writers, as she always adored reading and writing and wanted to communicate her thoughts from pop culture to school issues, while also deepening her involvement with the school. “I joined when I was a sophomore and I decided to join because I’ve always had a passion for reading and writing and I thought it would be fun to be able to voice my opinion to the school while getting involved in something academic,” Rolle said. Outside of the school newspaper, you can likely find Rolle spending her free time on the water, rowing for the varsity team at the Tampa Bay rowing club. “Two of my closest friends have been rowing since sixth grade and our team is small, so they were asking new girls to come out and try it. So, my sophomore year I decided to give it a try, and I loved and have been doing it ever since,” Rolle said. Whenever she’s not rowing, Rolle greatly enjoys using her time making matcha and listening to various genres of music, with her tastes changing depending on the time of year. “I listen to different music genres throughout the seasons but right now, since it’s fall, I’m listening to a lot of Smashing Pumpkins and Radiohead,” Rolle said. This being her third year on the Knight Writers staff, Rolle has formed many unforgettable experiences but of all the memories, her favorite has to be when she attended the Florida Scholastic Press Association competition last year in Orlando. “We got to stay near the SeaWorld for a weekend, and we just had so much fun entering competitions and hanging around the hotel,” Rolle said. Part of the class of 2026, Rolle plans to attend college after high school either furthering her passion in journalism by majoring in biology or furthering her passion in journalism by majoring in creative writing. “My biggest dream ever would be to get into Dartmouth and major in biology or journalism/creative writing with a minor in Spanish, then go on to become an orthodontist,” Rolle said. (Profile by Avani Madabhushanam)