2 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

Maybe her divorce album is next (but likely her “motherhood” era before that, lol). 😛

 

 

😂😂😂

Initial thoughts: LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE(!!) Opalite (see what I did there? LOL)   I'm pretty sure it's going to be in my top 10 Taylor songs.  I love it so much.   I also really like The Fate of Ophelia.   Both songs are great to dance to!  Love seeing videos on people dancing to these songs.  LOL    TFOO is one of her best lead singles.  I think it will have more longevity than Fornight.  

Of course I'll say more later when I have to digest everything. 

 

Taylor Swift Sells 2.7 Million Copies of ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ on First Day of Release in U.S.

Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl album is off to a sparkling start in the United States. On its first day of release, Oct. 3, the set sold 2.7 million copies in traditional album sales (physical and digital purchases) across all versions of the album, according to initial reports to data tracking firm Luminate. That marks Swift’s biggest week ever, and the second-largest sales week for any album in the modern era — since Luminate began electronically tracking data in 1991. The only larger sales week in that span of time was registered by the opening frame of Adele’s 25, which sold 3.378 million copies in its first week in 2015. 

 

OMG.  2.7 million in the first day, which means it's already Taylor's best first week.  TTPD had 1.9 million pure copies in its first week.  

And I'm not surprised at all. IMO this album is her mature masterpiece.

MY NEW ON REPEAT. 

On 10/3/2025 at 11:10 AM, YRBB said:

OK, impressions after FIRST and ONLY listen: This will take a couple more spins.

I really liked CANCELLED!, Wi$h Li$t, and TLOAS (especially the first), but I will go ahead and say it: My expectations were not met OR surpassed.

Why bring in pop superproducers Max Martin and Shellback for what is basically an Antonoff midtempo album? Where are the BIG choruses, the bridges, the catchy stuff? 

Once I listen a few more times, and get used to the sound, I would not be surprised if my opinion changed. But as a FIRST listen? Kinda disappointed...  

It wasn't what I expected either when I saw Max and Shellback were the only producers.  But we already experienced that kind of pop music with 1989 and reputation and parts of Red.  There's a lot of 70's pop vibes on this album, and that is a new thing for the Max/Shellback/Taylor team.  The Fate of Ophelia and Opalite are the two songs that are the catchiest songs, and Opalite as the best chorus and bridge, IMO.  Opalite needs to be the next single.  

I'm starting to like Wi$h Lis$t a lot because of the instrumentals/melodies.  Does it have the best lyrics? Hell no.  LOL However, it just makes me feel good.   I feel the same way about Honey.  

Wood is starting to grow on me (no pun intended). LOL     I don't care about the subject matter and I refuse to sing most of the song. LOL    But the instrumentals/melodies is so catchy.  This is another song with 70's pop vibes.  

 

  

 

 

On 10/3/2025 at 4:10 PM, Maxim said:

First listen - My girl is back. That's the wit and the sharp bitch I want to hear. The Fate of Ophelia!!!!!!! OMG. Taylor goes GAGA. That's the darkness I CRAVE. Hamlet come and save me! Actually Romantic - amazing melody and very catchy! Momma is on that toxic relationship train again. The Life of a Showgirl - I don't know, but this song gives me Madonna-vibes. American Life, but done The Taylor way. Sabrina!!!!!! Honey... - very light... cute... but again... super catchy. I heard some Ariana Grande stuff in there. 10/10. CANCELLED - BITCH, let's get to rock and roll!!!!!!!!!! Wood - WOOOOOOOOOOF. That retro Motown feel to it... makes it so special. Eldest daughter - I started crying. Tori Amos will be proud. Probably MY FAVORITE SONG OF THE ENTIRE ALBUM. So raw... so truthful. "SO MANY TRAITORS... SMOOTH OPERATORS!" Opalite - the kind of song... you find yourself listening to... passed out drunk in some club... and crying your eyes off. Gave me a bit of Miley Cyrus in there. FATHER FIGURE - NOOOOW BISH... NO. THIS. THIS IS MY FAVORITE. The melodies, the production... the lyrics... "I PROTECT THE FAMILY" Ruin the friendship - I couldn't take how amazing this album was at this point. One of the highlights - so fresh, a little bit young... like a ray of sunshine on my face. Her voice is like honey. Wish list - THE WANT THAT COMPLEX FEMALE CHARACTER. Momma is philosophical once again. They deserve what they WANT. AND I JUST WANT YOU - I'm crying my eyes off again. Elizabeth Taylor - I mean... Lana Del Rey would be proud of this song. Dramatic, atmospheric... I WANT A VIDEO. 

OVERALL I'M hysterical. RIGHT NOW I feel like this is her best album EVER. I'M OBSESSED. I haven't done anything else, but listen to it today... and dancing in the living room like crazy. FAVORITES - ELIZABETH TAYLOR, FATHER FIGURE, ELDEST DAUGHTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haha.  Awesome you love this album.  I love it too.   

Father Figure is great too! This is another catchy song. "I protect the family" - I love it when she whispers this.  This is good video someone made on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPZHxXnigqm/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Love the production on Elizabeth Taylor.  

 

14 hours ago, Maxim said:

And I'm not surprised at all. IMO this album is her mature masterpiece.

Well, I wouldn't call it mature.....hahaha.  To me, this is a glitter gel pen album. It's fun, sometimes unserious, sometimes raunchy, sometimes cringy (which Taylor said to embrace it in 2022).  We needed this album coming off The Tortured Poets Department. 

Here's what Taylor said about glitter gel pen songs a couple years ago: "The third category is called Glitter Gel Pen and it lives up to its name in every way. Frivolous, carefree, bouncy, syncopated perfectly to the beat. Glitter Gel Pen lyrics don’t care if you don’t take them seriously because they don’t take themselves seriously. Glitter Gel Pen lyrics are the drunk girl at the party who tells you that you look like an Angel in the bathroom. It’s what we need every once in a while in these fraught times in which we live."

It's only fitting for an album that has glitter visuals.

8 hours ago, Toups said:

Well, I wouldn't call it mature.....hahaha.  To me, this is a glitter gel pen album. It's fun, sometimes unserious, sometimes raunchy, sometimes cringy (which Taylor said to embrace it in 2022).  We needed this album coming off The Tortured Poets Department. 

Here's what Taylor said about glitter gel pen songs a couple years ago: "The third category is called Glitter Gel Pen and it lives up to its name in every way. Frivolous, carefree, bouncy, syncopated perfectly to the beat. Glitter Gel Pen lyrics don’t care if you don’t take them seriously because they don’t take themselves seriously. Glitter Gel Pen lyrics are the drunk girl at the party who tells you that you look like an Angel in the bathroom. It’s what we need every once in a while in these fraught times in which we live."

It's only fitting for an album that has glitter visuals.

Oh... I cried so much during this album... I definitely feel a lot of the themes are dark, deep and yes... I'll repeat - mature. Even if the style is sometimes "glitter". That's Taylor after all. I think that we need that glitter to tell some difficult stories.  

Even starting with the first single... I mean... We all know what Ophelia did, right? She killed herself. Drowned herself. That symbolism is right there in the cover of the album. And the song itself to me speaks of the ways she was saved from a tragic downfall... by love. She even says it - "if you hadn't called I would have drowned in melancholy". Beneath all that glitter are very serious topics IMO. And songs like Eldest daughter and Father figure are not what I would say carefree. I wouldn't call Elizabeth Taylor and Cancelled the most frivolous either. Especially the lyrics and the deeper meaning. A lot of these songs are about personal battles and conflicts.

I find most of the songs from the album have lyrics that are carefully chosen and very meaningful. They are at least to me. This is not Britney Spears talking about sleeping with some guy in all her songs. The glitter is just a facade. It's just much more nuanced and mature. That's just my opinion. 

All of us can take this subjectively and experience it our own way. That's what makes music so powerful, when it's good.

Edited October 6, 2025Oct 6 by Maxim

 

Here is the first negative thing I'll say about all of this... I don't like the new video at all. Very generic Taylor video. I expected more. I liked some of the looks, but overall it is... Meh. It is cute... But that's the most I can say. @Toups what do you think? 😊

Edited October 6, 2025Oct 6 by Maxim

OK, the witch has done it again. The video has grown on me. 😂

 

Totally my top 1 track. How many times... I've cried on this... I'm ashamed to say.

"Never gonna leave you..."

I listened to the new offering from Ms. Swift over the weekend... and some of the songs gave me a Madonna/Britney Spears vibe.  Which isn't a bad thing because I do enjoy their sound, but I have to confess that I miss her country pop vibes that she had back in the 2000s.

OK, I'ma get it off my chest:

The whole album feels more like an exercise in marketing and branding than actual art. An empty "Showgirl" theme just so she could do the visuals and sell it. She promised great pop melodies with Folklore style lyrics. Instead we got:

1) Severe lack of catchy melodies/choruses/hooks. The Fate of Ophelia and Opalite come close.

2) Immature, corny, nonsensical, simple, borderline amateurish lyrics panned by even hardcore fans. Just cos you're dating an all-american jock doesn't mean you should dumb everything down. The occasional quote-worthy line but lots of SERIOUS missteps. "when the coke's got you brave" "dickmatized me" "key that opened my thighs" The really awful Wi$h Li$t were she mocks people for wanting fame, success, money (her, a literal BILLIONAIRE), as if SHE didn't want ALLLLLL those things too? Why not admit you wanted/got all those things too, Taylor?

3) Bringing in Max Martin and Shellback to do absolutely NOTHING. I don't know if we'll ever know the truth of this but i wonder if she had these songs and brought them in to help promote and legitimize the project.  

4) CANCELLED!????? Once Blake Lively started liking Taylor's stuff, I just knew: She's referring to that fantastic disaster.

5) Most songs sound like rejected B-sides that belong to Sabrina Carpenter

6) Attempts at being playfully sexual that come off as childish

7) Honey? Ugh.....

I am 100% ok with silly, "fun" lyrics... but you gotta deliver sonically. I never minded Katy Perry's outrageous lyrics because boy her music BOPPED. 

Ultimately, considering the 2.7 million first day sales, this doesn't matter right now ... but it's entirely possible she has made a great miscalculation in her career with this album. She has revealed herself as relatively shallow, vapid, a perpetual victim; sadly, what people have been accusing her of being. 

I'm still listening... but damn, Taylor! 

I love when the reactions are all over the spectrum. 😂 I can't lie... I'm obsessed with the album and I think it's her best material in years. But I also get why other people may not like it.