Swifties, who would like to join me in the countdown to Life of a Showgirl?

[Everlore]

I woke up this morning to a slew of messages from excited Swiftie friends telling me about the new album, I hadn't dared to hope it would be here so soon and now I am ridiculously excited and have my vinyl copy pre-ordered already!
My husband, also a Swiftie, had warned me not to get my hopes up ahead of the release of TTPD last year as he couldn't see how it could possibly live up to her previous albums, fortunately he was completely wrong and I consider it to be among her finest work, one of the best albums I've ever heard! I therefore have no reservations about getting excited about the new album. It will also be the first album since our baby was born, though I THINK she's more of a folklore and evermore girl so she may not be quite as enthused by the possibility of more Max Martin and Shellback collaborations as we are.
Even though we won't be getting Reputation TV now, I hope the vault tracks still see the light of day, when you consider the quality of the 1989 vault tracks just imagine what the Reputations ones must be like! I have high hopes that this new album might have been inspired from work that had already begun on Reputation TV.
Anyway, just wanted to come on here and share my excitement with other Swifties. What are you hoping or expecting from TS12?

OK, listen no. 3 is making me feel as if this a pretty coherent album and it is definitely growing on me. She's just having a lot of fun, really, and after the (beautiful, brilliant) misery of TTPD it's good to hear some unapologetic joy.

For me, one of the things I love about TS is how every album is a reinvention, and so different from the last - but equally that's also why each new album is hard to get my head round at first! I've been deep in TTPDland for the last year, now I need some time to get into Showgirl mode ❤️‍🔥

When she said there were lots of bangers, I was expecting something more along the lines of 1989 or Lover. I do really like it though possibly more than TTPD or Midnights

It’s definitely got some catchy songs and I particularly like Cancelled, Actually Romantic and Father figure. I’ve had to stop listening now since I’ve had it on repeat for a few hours but will maybe play more this evening. I don’t think her lyricism is anywhere near the standard we’re used to plus the sound of the album isn’t as ‘cool’ as say Midnights was 🤷🏼‍♀️

I have faith in it being a grower - ALL TS albums plus individual songs, for that matter, don't usually grab me at first listen and then days down the line they jump out of nowhere to obsess me. But on one listen (I'll have a second at lunchtime) I really like Actually Romantic, Cancelled! and The Life of A Showgirl

I have just listened through a second time and it has definitely really grown on me

Is Father Figure about Scott Borchetta?

I think it might be

Ive had it on replay in the background today as I potter. I'm falling in love with the whole album. Really catchy. Wood is so tongue in cheek I'm starting to really like it.

I saved my listen for my lunchtime gym session. It’s a great work out album, loving Opalite, Cancelled, Elizabeth Taylor and The Life of A Showgirl. None that I don’t like.

It took me a while to get into TTPD but this one has caught me straight away.

Definitely a grower, and agree with PP that I rarely like any new album to begin with but this is getting better with each listen. The lyrics don't seem as deep or sophisticated as previous albums, and if the diss track really is about Charlie XCX then it seems a bit... lame? (If it's actually about Trump, which someone posted on Insta, then that's hilarious, but it fits Charlie much more.)

Looking forward to the weekend when it seems lots more things will be unveiled, with all her easter eggs and extra material.

I’m on the fourth listen. At first I was like ehhhh but it is growing.

i just don’t feel like there’s a song that i can scream along to whilst driving like The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived or All Too Well.

Trump works brilliantly! I bet it's him, she wouldn't care about Charli ...

Had a second listen and a big leap forward in liking, so it's all positive

DD was waiting for the CD to arrive today. Just realised we’ve moved since I ordered it and it’s gone to our old address 🙈

I think it’s about people in general who spend their time hating her. Like a similar thing to You Need to Calm Down.

It’s a fun pop album, I like it. It will probably end up somewhere in the middle of my Taylor album rankings, but I always need a while with an album before I can figure that out.

I do think it’s strong lyrically, but the contemporary references and internet slang really take me out of it (and I say this as someone younger than Taylor and chronically online). It’s a shame as Eldest Daughter has moments that are right up there, but parts of it do make me cringe. Other songs do it too, and I just wish they didn’t, she is talented enough that it’s a choice rather than lack of skill, but it’s not an artistic choice I like.

It’s interesting seeing conversation about her being ‘repositioned’ as a tradwife, because from my perspective the repositioning she and her team are doing most fiercely is an attempt to be viewed as sexy. She is beautiful, has an amazing body, dressed in various boudoir-esce looks… but she just doesn’t give sexy energy. I think that’s why songs like Wood feel cringe, because they don’t match her vibe, compared to Sabrina who can be overtly sexy and cheeky and silly and feel authentic, Taylor feels like it’s a costume she is trying on.

I thought the same until I listened to Sympathy is a Knife by Charlie XCX - it's pretty explicitly reflecting those lyrics, which is shame because Charlie's song's also about her own struggles with fame and womanhood etc. I'd much rather it be about fans, haters, or Trump.

@SummaLuvin Agree re the internet slang! Maybe in a few years it'll be a fascinating window into the current moment, but it really pops the bubble of disappearing into a song. Also agree re the sexiness, but I think I like that it seems like an unsuccessful costume: her body looks so much healthier than a few years ago, really strong and functional, rather than a wispy male-gaze sex-kitten like Sabrina C. TS just seems like an incredible talented songwriter and performer who's playing at being a Showgirl, which works for the concept of this album in particular.

After being less keen this morning, it growing on me after second listen, I’m now dancing round the house singing opalite and honey.

I still don’t think the lyrics are her best. But I’m really enjoying it now!

I’m thinking the cringe is kind of the point in eldest daughter - kind of hey, I’m not cool and I’m tired of trying to be.

The media reviews are predictably negative (and poorly informed). I've just read one that said Sabrina Carpenter was 'undetectable' on the title track. I mean, ffs, the churn of desperate negativity every time a new album comes out is so old. The Guardian says she sounds 'frazzled', when I would say this is probably her most secure and confident record ever.

Having said all of that...it's not my favourite. I am really enjoying Cancelled, Elizabeth Taylor, Father Figure and The Fate of Ophelia, but there's just not the same depth of emotion (joyful or miserable!) and lyricism that mark her out as head and shoulders above her contemporaries, for me at least. Still love her, though!

See, I find Sabrina incredibly cringey - I don't think she is sexy at all. Granted, as a 50-something woman I am absolutely not her target market, but she's too cartoonish to be truly sexy, imo. She's basically Betty Boop.

Undetectable?? She sings a whole verse by herself

Exactly. I don't begrudge well-considered critique but, my god, at least listen before you start slagging it off!

I'm finding the reception to this album so interesting. My FYP won't be a perfect cross-section of fan reactions, but it seems the deep cuts girlies are disappointed by the lyrics and story telling, at the same time the pop princess good vibes girlies are disappointed it doesn’t feel more sparkly. In the podcast Taylor said she had preserved the storytelling and lyricism of Folklore & Evermore, but it was a happy album, and that she wanted to make an album the sounded the way the Eras Tour felt. I'm not sure she achieved those things with TLOAS.

Anyone else keep getting the first chords of The Pixies Where Is My Mind when Actually Romantic starts up? Takes me right back to the 90s. I wonder if that is intentional.

Yes, and Lenny Kravitz's It Ain't Over Til It's Over at the start of Ruin The Friendship.

And Glitch and King of My Heart both appear somewhere, too, although I can't remember where now!