"Her last album, The Tortured Poets Department, ended with the cautionary Clara Bow, an allegory that seemed to suggest her tenure atop the cultural mainstream was inherited from stars of the past, like the namechecked Stevie Nicks and that a new generation of younger, elastic female pop performers could soon take her place. In 2025, there are many to choose from: Consider Chappell Roan's full-throated theatrics, Olivia Rodrigo's fiery punk-pop feminism, Sabrina Carpenter's cheeky sexuality. In the knotty themes of Friday's The Life of a Showgirl, best illustrated in the title track, Swift asserts that the baton hasn't been passed, but rather shared."
"Notably, if she has a chosen successor in someone else, it's the album's sole feature: Carpenter, who sings on the stomp-clap closer in her newly adopted twang. The mournful glissando of lap steel the album's most country moment arrives only with Carpenter's introduction. The western genre is Swift's past and Carpenter's future. Suggestive bangers and a New Heights' namecheck If Swift is co-signing Carpenter, she's also learning from her."
The Life of a Showgirl reaffirms Taylor Swift's cultural dominance while acknowledging a new wave of younger female pop artists. The album pushes back against the idea that her mainstream tenure has been fully passed on, instead framing influence as shared. The title track combines theatricality and defiant lyrics that claim longevity. Sabrina Carpenter appears as the sole featured artist, bringing country-tinged lap steel and a twang to the closing track. Swift adapts tight, provocative popcraft and includes suggestive lyrics and contemporary references while highlighting continuities between her past and others' emerging styles.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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