"The piano ballad certainly sounds like a track five musically but lacks the depth we're used to, and any emotional gut punch is stifled by cringey lyrics. The album's true track five, spiritually at least, is found just one song later in "Ruin the Friendship" - which undeniably has the biggest emotional gut punch of the record and exists much more symbiotically with the other songs."
"She sings about finding love amid the downsides of fame but does so with a perplexing choice of words. "I'm not a bad bitch, and this isn't savage," she sings, sounding like a parody of "I'm not a princess, this ain't a fairy tale" off of another track five, "White Horse." That song, off of Fearless, is one of the many that proves her ability to write timeless lyrics, which makes hearing her sing about "memes," "trolling," and looking "fire" so painfully distracting."
Track five has long been reserved for the most personal song on each album. "Eldest Daughter" is the fifth track on The Life of a Showgirl. Fans noticed that center-justified song titles form the Eras Tour stage shape, and Swift confirmed the design was deliberate, making the track list an Easter egg. The piano ballad sonically fits the track-five role but lacks the lyrical depth and emotional gut punch expected in that slot. References to memes, trolling, and looking "fire" blunt the song's impact. The album's emotional centerpiece appears in the next track, "Ruin the Friendship," which delivers the record's biggest gut punch and meshes more symbiotically with surrounding songs.
Read at Vulture
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]