If you manage to pass the dense and suffocating marketing forest that has made the Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift) And you will defend the Pretorian Guard of her fans (“” Swifties “), you will find the music. And music is offered at ‘The Life of a Showgirl’her 12th album, released last week.

The artist kept them all at a distance, with minimal leaks whose authenticity was not confirmed: no one had heard the album outside her circle and no promotional songs were released. We only had the few information the artist gave to Podcast with her fiancé, Travis Kelce.

However, her promise of returning to the glittering 1989 or Red pop – something that was expected, as the producers were the Swedish Max Martin and Shellback, the 2000s commercial chorus masters and with whom she had collaborated on her previous albums – is disappointing. We had already abandoned the hope of the depth of the albums produced by Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner (The National), basically the last four, with special mention in the strict Folklore (2020), perhaps its climax.

So what does “The Life of a Showgirl” offers us? A hesitant, conservative proposal that sometimes follows in the footsteps of her students (Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter), rarely brilliant and sometimes, especially in the last part, completely forgotten. Adding to the fact that Swift almost does not write lyrics from the prospect of the wounded and revengeful ex -girl we enjoyed so much in the past, what remains is a transitional album that was in a hurry, while she was more focused on the “Era”.

Taylor Swift

The album starts well, with “The Fate of Oplia”, a song -based song and original structure, but its lyrics are sad and certainly dedicated to its fiancé.

Overall, however, the album is not good and the songs are moving between the soft pop (at best) and the over -elaborate 2000s songs, which are part of Max Martin’s specialty. There are a few songs in which she releases her caustic style. It does it in “Actually Romantic”, a very Olivia Rodrigo track.