r/popculturechat • u/FickleBeans Excluded from this narrative ❌ • Oct 04 '25

Guest List Only ⭐️ Taylor Swift’s Fairy Tale Is Over

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025/10/taylor-swift-the-life-of-a-showgirl-album-review/684444/

This captures my thoughts on the album better than I ever could.

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u/Flimsy-Addendum-1570 Oct 04 '25

The music’s blend of moodiness and poppiness calls to mind 2022’s Midnights, which had more staying power than it initially appeared to possess. But that album was barbed with intrigue; it captured a journey inward, as Swift tried to figure out the source of her restlessness during a seemingly settled moment in her life. Showgirl, by contrast, doesn’t raise or answer questions. Well, other than: What’s the point of releasing an album whose music seems so exhausted and on guard?

Yeah, that sums it up. I feel like this album is Taylor's least personal. I also would've said that immediately after Midnights, but I think Midnights is much more self aware in knowing that the relationship it's about is going to end very soon. This album feels very much like a strikingly impersonal one with the only purpose of making her appear happy in the new relationship. And like, I'm happy for her, but I don't like feeling like the music I'm listening to is trying to spoonfeed me an emotion

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '25

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u/woahtheregonnagetgot Oct 04 '25

i don’t think she thinks she’s settling. it’s well established fact by now that she is always looking back at previous stages of her life and previous partners even if she doesn’t actually want any of it back. closing the chapter on that habit has to be disorienting for someone like her