Not all donuts come out with the hole, you know. Not even those of Taylor Swift, who in recent years, of “pierced” donuts, has produced in series, more or less uninterrupted by 1989 – the turning point, that of Shake it offof 2014 – at the last and ambitious The tortured poets departmentreleased in just April 2024. And instead. And instead the new The Life of a showgirlreleased last weekend with the usual clamor that accompanies every move of what is now the queen of world music, inviting colleagues from all over the world to keep their work in the cellar for another week for not being physiologically obscured (Tiè), well, is a weak work.

The problems of the new album

Mind you: here you are not giving rise to those who expected the first false step of Swift to say that it is “supervised”, “incomprehensible”, in short for those who see in this testacoda – because this is, beyond the enormous commercial result that it will have, also because there are now other factors, in which it is still queen – reveals the alleged bluff of the American singer -songwriter, in reality, overrated. On the contrary, the problems of The Life of a showgirl They are evident precisely in comparison with the past records, because here those elements that have made it unique and winning so far are as corrodes, developed badly, if not quite betrayed. And to think that, again, the artist is all right, and peace for those who had scandalized by the insertion of her on a list (which leave the time they find) with the best guitarists ever. Sacrilege, but also not: Swift, it was still needed, he is a true musician, daughter of the country in which he trained and from which he then turned towards pop.

Basically, however, he built his success, in artistic terms, on three pillars, that here they fail, in favor of … nothing. The first is strictly musical: in the most loved projects, those who made him “take seriously” by critics, such as Folklore and Submarine (both from 2020), has always surrounded itself with producers who gave a more indietry to its music, which were electronic folk sounds or other linked to the eighties, with results often such as to make anyone who, in any case, is not one of many. In The Life of a showgirl She returned to work with Max Martin, a producer who had put her gold hands on 1989 And before and after he had collaborated with all the other great American pop stars, from Ariana Grande to Lady Gaga, to stay at the last. The result – also thanks to surprisingly school writing – this time, however, it is a transparent and harmless pop, completely without the charisma and the small deadly details that we were used to feeling in his records. And that, even for a less attentive ear, they still constituted a crucial element, it was also unconsciously. Perhaps the landing badly calculating, Swift has returned to the rules of 15 years ago, disavowing a large part of the road done so far, convinced that she still does it. He was wrong.

It is no longer “one of us”

The other aspects that have made its luck, and that are connected to each other, are the ability to build and tell worlds – in fact, all the discourse on the “eras” and the consequentiality of its albums – e especially of tell. Each album is, in summary, A trip to new pages of his secret diarybetween loves, disappointments, hopes and anything else, all evoked with the breath of the great American novel. Fantastic, both for the surrender – he learned everything from the country, a very narrative genre by definition – that for the results, because millions of people have covered themselves in his beautiful texts, always repeating the same thing: it is one of us, or at least it seems such. In short, Swift, like a world pop star, far and yet close – with problems, thoughts – to the public. Cheers.

The problem, even unpleasant, of The Life of a showgirl It is here: born during the incredible The Eras Tour (2023 and 2024, the one passed also in Italy, with the double date of Milan), tells Alone The life of a star at the height of success, starting from the title. And it is the first time in which Swift is sold as such in all respects, tracing a wider furrow with the public. That the same will be willing to follow it? It will probably be seen yes, but the problem remains, not so much because she herself tells you as a successful star – the stories of boredom and contradiction, deriving from certain roles, subscribing to music, rap in the first place – but why it does so bad. Where a step forward would have expected, at least in terms of content (I don’t know, boh, the sense of emptiness? Assuming that she feels it, but it would be interesting), the result is instead a sterile job, with qualunquisti thoughts on the opportunistic behavior of those who gravitate around famous people, assorted arrows (there is one, perhaps, for Charlie XCX, even if it seems denying), generic references and above all a sense of finding yourself in imaginary enemies. As if it were in crisis, which is not, he pushes on the pedal of “We and them”, a dynamic that works in music – herself is the testimony, In Italy there is last – But whose measure has been lost here. Foids on feuds, for no reason.

Cann’t you afford errors?

In short, in The Life of a showgirl Taylor Swift is not Taylor Swift. It is difficult to say why, perhaps the processing, given that it took place next to such a demanding tour, was underestimated. Maybe she is focused on her wedding with Travis KelceAmerican football player who in The Life of a showgirl It is a little the anchor of salvation (a little little, it is to be said), while it is realistic to think of an album also for the wedding. Probably, this is only a passage disc: in itself something normal and physiological, it was not that to a giant like this, for what he built and for how he did it, a moment like this is not allowed.