Every time Taylor Swift, the country star turned pop royalty, releases a new album, it’s a cultural event, whether you’re a Swiftie or not. This is because the algorithm will no doubt feed you reactions and commentary just because you are, at most, one degree removed from the Band Hero star’s fandom at all times. The Life of a Showgirl is Swift’s 12th album, and turns the dial back into radio/TikTok-ready pop after The Tortured Poets Department went for a more melancholic, folky sound. But is it any good? Well, Swifties are sorting through their feelings.
Like most of Swift’s work, The Life of a Showgirl is pretty transparent in its references to her personal life. As that personal life has become so well-known in and out of her music, it’s usually pretty obvious who a song is about. So there’s some lore to unpack with a lot of these songs, but the ones that are getting the most attention right now are the ones that seem to reference her fiancé Travis Kelce’s hog and seem to escalate an apparent feud between her and pop star Charli XCX that, at least publicly, appears largely one-sided at the moment.
Let’s start with the song that is all about how well-endowed the Kansas City football player is. “Wood” starts out with a funky riff and a catchy beat, and you can already hear the Sabrina Carpenter influence in the composition. Then you hear the lyrics and you can tell that Swift is trying to emulate the Short n’ Sweet singer’s trademark graphic, sexual punchlines. Here, let’s look at the lyrics of the second verse.
Forgive me, it sounds cocky
He ah-matized me and openеd my eyes
Redwood tree, it ain’t hard to see
His lovе was the key that opened my thighs
Girls, I don’t need to catch the bouquet, mm
To know a hard rock is on the way
And baby, I’ll admit I’ve been a little superstitious
The curse on me was broken by your magic wand
Seems to be that you and me, we make our own luck
New Heights of manhood
If the clear reference to Kelce’s New Heights podcast wasn’t enough to make it clear that this is about her man’s schlong, the reference to a “hard rock” like the one on her finger would make it pretty clear. There’s an episode of How I Met Your Mother in which Marshall (Jason Segal) realizes he can’t tell any sexy stories from his dating life to his friends without everyone knowing they’re about his long-time partner Lily (Alyson Hannigan) because she’s the only one he’s really been with. Part of what makes love songs such a popular genre of music is that there’s a universality to them that people can project onto their own relationships. Who among us wouldn’t love to sing about a man’s dick lifting a curse and solving all our problems? But Swift’s very public personal life and clear references to her husband-to-be mean that I can’t hear this song without knowing whose dick it’s about.
That being said, the song is pretty catchy. What Swift may lack in Carpenter’s clever jokes, she makes up for in a fun song about love and lust. And hey, Kelce seems cool with it?
One song I have a less charitable read on, however, is “Actually Romantic,” which takes the other side of “everyone knowing your business” and seems to be essentially a diss track against Charli XCX. For those who don’t know, Charli has a song called “Sympathy Is a Knife” on the album Brat that addresses her insecurities in the pop girl space, and seemingly references Swift specifically triggering those feelings of comparison in her. “Actually Romantic” is being called a diss track aimed at the “360” singer, and at first blush, some think Swift may have straight-up misunderstood the intent behind “Sympathy Is a Knife,” which is actually fairly complimentary to her.
However, “Actually Romantic” does seem to gesture at further drama behind the scenes, even as Swift has been publicly supportive of Charli. Specifically, it references Swift’s past relationship with Matty Healy of the band 1975, which also includes Charli’s husband George Daniel, and things Charli has allegedly said about Swift in private.
I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave
High-fived my ex and then said you’re glad he ghosted me
Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face
Some people might be offended
But it’s actually sweet
All the time you’ve spent on me.
I guess I can buy that maybe there’s more happening than “Sympathy Is a Knife” lets on. It’s giving Reputation era, when Swift was very publicly calling out other public figures like Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, or 1989’s “Bad Blood” which referenced her now-ended feud with pop star Katy Perry. Again, it’s the effect of someone’s personal life being so public that these songs end up weaving a story that’s already playing out on social media and in gossip magazines. Though if this is all spun off from “Sympathy Is a Knife,” then it feels like punching down.
The problem with Life of a Showgirl is that Swift’s status as a billionaire mega-celebrity clashes against the “relatable” persona she exhibits in her music here more than ever before. “Eldest Daughter” laments how mean everyone on the internet can be, when she’s enveloped in a massive cocoon of wealth and status. Like, girl, why are you even reading TikTok comments when you could be doing literally anything else with all that money?
lol https://t.co/a78pUaSvCU pic.twitter.com/quyrERr07R
— grace spelman (@GraceSpelman) October 3, 2025
Another song that really sticks out as an expression of Swift imagining threats to her status is “CANCELLED!” which I saw someone say is destined to become the new anthem of MAGA wine moms, and I can’t stop thinking about it. As the title suggests, the song is all about perceived judgments of her for who she chooses to associate with, with her singing that she likes her friends “cancelled” and cloaked in “scandal.” Broadly, this could be a song about cancel culture and how Swift is unwilling to drop people just because they run afoul of public scrutiny, but given that she has friends who are public Trump supporters, that feels like underselling or minimizing people’s criticism as some kind of petty scandal, rather than a legitimate concern.
Ultimately, all of these reactions are born from the relationship with her fandom that Swift has cultivated over her decades-long career. When your personal life is the source of the characters and stories people listen for references to in each song, every album is like a new season of a television show for which millions of people tune in just to lap up every new lore drop. But is the music any good? In my first listen, I came away thinking that Life of a Showgirl is an obvious low point in Swift’s discography. I don’t think I’m alone in that assessment, but the album has been out for all of 12 hours at this point, and people will sort their feelings out over the next few weeks or months. Tonight, Swift is putting out a movie in theaters called The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, which will include commentary and context for the album from Swift. Maybe that will work in its favor. For now, the music is speaking for itself. For better or worse.
— emily (@grIgenius) October 3, 2025
every year a taylor swift album comes out and she goes roses are red grass is green i love travis and my haters are mean and her fans go Omgggggg the lyricism
— zade (@zadtwt) October 2, 2025
she did it omg https://t.co/pRaiOFRgtG pic.twitter.com/idYwgDuRH0
— Wendell (@RhodeToLove) October 3, 2025
yall im CRYINGNSIDNDHF pic.twitter.com/nC25tp2KcZ
— allypally (@allypallyxcx) October 3, 2025
https://t.co/3CIXeCfhyy pic.twitter.com/NAQvUVy9Qp
— The Coke That Made Charli xcx Brave (@Neil_McNeil) October 3, 2025
https://t.co/O23bECsSMr pic.twitter.com/iK8u3dO19T
— keira (@kettlevinyl) October 3, 2025
These aren’t lyrics born of depth, just reference points engineered to ride the current wave internet talking points like ‘eldest daughters suffer more than jesus’ and spark a shallow ‘she’s just like me’ emotion from its listener. Not moved https://t.co/cXsllaedbn
— Ara (@lefilmara) October 3, 2025
IDGAF what yall saying! I’m vibing! I’m a showgirl baby pic.twitter.com/6vupKDLFEJ
— 💫 (@heyjaeee) October 3, 2025
why should taylor have to be a girls girl when nobody shows her the same courtesy? why is it iconic when other people create mess but she has to be persecuted? pic.twitter.com/kkQCeTuMKw
— jobless men #1 hater is a showgirl (@taylorenthusian) October 2, 2025
it’s honestly so freeing being a folklore stan who isn’t chronically negative cause while y’all are acting like showgirl murdered your family i’m twirling to ophelia
— kam⸆⸉ ❤️🔥 (@kamirrorball) October 3, 2025
Anyway, did you know that Coheed and Cambria also put out the special edition of their excellent album Father of Make Believe today? It’s got four new songs that are all pretty good, though maybe not quite as good as the best stuff on the main album.
