A second Taylor Swift announcement has hit the sub, so to contain the number of threads on the topic, we will be redirecting discussion on secondary aspects of the release to this thread.

Relevant Materials:

• Megathread for the announcement of the announcement

• Thread for the cover art/track list announcement

• Links to the alternate, limited edition covers

• Taylor's interview on her boyfriend's podcast

Tracklist:

1. The Fate of Ophelia

2. Elizabeth Taylor

3. Opalite

4. Father Figure

5. Eldest Daughter

6. Ruin The Friendship

7. Actually Romantic

8. Wi$h Li$t

9. Wood

10. CANCELLED!

11. Honey

12. The Life of a Showgirl (Feat. Sabrina Carpenter)

Album is set to release October 3rd

Could it be quality over quantity this time - or is she going to release 1000 variants?

With 12 days until The Life of a Showgirl drops I thought that it would be the perfect time to talk about the tracklist of the album! ❤️‍🔥 ✨️

The Fate of Ophelia - this track could connect with Clara Bow, continuing the narrative from TTPD. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia was a woman controlled by the men around her (her father and her lover) ultimately leading to her descent into madness and death. Taylor could take inspiration from this story much like she did in Love Story, rewriting the ending she didn't like. She might parallel herself with Ophelia — being manipulated, silenced, and overpowered by men — before “changing the prophecy.” In doing so, she could give Ophelia and herself an empowered ending, transforming her into a bold, self-empowered woman who makes her own choices

Elizabeth Taylor - the song could delve into double standards of fame and stereotypes for women. Elizabeth Taylor was scrutinized relentlessly for her personal life, with her name often tied more to her love life and marriages than to her remarkable career. Sound familiar? This track could explore themes of misogyny, media obsession, and the way women are reduced to their relationships rather than celebrated for their accomplishments and careers.

Opalite - opalite is a man-made imitation of opal. While it appears blue and iridescent, under certain light it shifts to orange. The song could explore the journey of turning from opalite (something fake, artificial) to opal (the real, authentic stone found in nature) through her relationship with Travis

Father Figure - metaphorically, a father figure provides guidance, protection, and emotional support. This song could focus on Taylor’s influence "as a father figure" on younger artists and her strong presence in the music industry. It could also have a similar concept to The Man and the industry's stereotypes for women

Eldest Daughter - this song could address the cost of fame; the overwhelming struggles of being the biggest pop star in the world, constant exposure, public expectations, and the toll it takes on her personal life

Ruin The Friendship - while many assume this might be about Taylor’s fallout with Blake Lively, the timeline makes that unlikely since the album was written in 2024. The phrase is commonly used to refer to crossing the line from friendship into romance. Although Taylor and Travis’ relationship was romantic from the beginning, the origin of it (Travis making her a friendship bracelet to meet her) could have inspired this song with a lyric "we didn’t have to ruin the friendship"

Actually Romantic - likely a love song for Travis, this track might carry the intimacy of Lover with introspective, poetic lyrics that explore the beauty and depth of their genuine romance

Wi$h Li$t - the dollar signs indicate that it could be a sassy track with Reputation vibes. A bold anthem about finally getting everything she once dreamed of and rubbing it to faces of those who have wronged her

Wood - two possible interpretations are:

1. coming from the slang meaning of "wood" with a similar vibe to Dress and sultry undertones

2. with an abbreviation for Hollywood being -wood and the Pinocchio in the back of the New Heights episode, the song could portray Taylor as a wooden puppet with its sole purpose being entertainment of crowds through performances. In the book Pinocchio is brought to life by a fairy (in Taylor's case by Travis)

CANCELLED! - the song can express the fear of the public growing tired of her because of the success of The Eras Tour, the constant exposure and her presence at Chiefs games.

Honey - honey is known for being timeless and its antibacterial elements. This song could reflect on Travis healing her wounds of the past and offering an everlasting love without an expiration date

The Life of a Showgirl - it's the title track of the album and I think it will fully encapsulate the message of this project; the rust behind the glitter, the life behind the curtain, the cracks behind the cameras, the pain behind the smile, the truth behind the myth...

What do you think? What are your thoughts about the tracklist for The Life of a Showgirl? ❤️‍🔥✨️

This thread will remain locked until midnight. Use this thread to discuss your thoughts, reactions, and theories on the album. We will be removing all future self-post discussion threads about the album in order to consolidate discussion to this thread.

If you want to talk about a song in particular, you can use the single song discussion threads that you can access by clicking on the track name below.

Taylor Swift - The Life of a Showgirl

Release Date: October 3, 2025

Label: Republic / Taylor Swift Productions

Genre: Pop

^{info from wikipedia}

Purchase / Streaming Links

Interviews

13 tracks total

Use no leaks (you can do a title track, though)

Be as serious or funny as you want

Come one come all, it's happening again...

Just like I did for TTPD I am maintaining a tracker spreadsheet for TLOAS (man that acronym does not roll off the tongue).

Image of the first sheet in its first version for visibility.

Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Z1EafC1ECbgBCDXC_cxyLGp9yz1hrW-148faw2n53pQ/edit?usp=sharing

The sheet has 5 tabs:

1. Versions: all versions and data are listed here

2. Images: all version names and at least one image of each listed here

3. Checklist: a checklist for you to check off the items you have

4. Counts: a page to tally up some of the data (for my data nerds)

5. Notes: a place for me to leave notes

This sheet is a work in progress and I will be adding more to it as we go on I am sure.

If you need instructions for your own version where you can click on the checklist and edit:

How to Make a Copy of a View-Only Google Sheet

1. Open the Google Sheet link.

2. In the top menu, click File.

3. From the dropdown, select Make a copy → Entire spreadsheet (or Selected sheets if you only need part).

4. Choose where to save it in your Google Drive and rename it if you’d like.

5. Click Make a copy.

You’ll now have your own editable version saved in your Google Drive!

I will try to update this as soon as I can after new things come out or get dropped. If you find any issues or see any errors, please send me nice message and I will try to update this as soon as I can! (Please remember I am just one person trying to keep track of everything.)

Happy collecting my friends!

Now that The Life of a Showgirl has been out for a few days and there has been enough time for the tracks to grow on us, I thought it would be a good idea to rank the tracks from worst to best.

I’ve written a full ranking with explanations but to summarise my 3 least favourite tracks are Honey, Wood + CANCELLED! and my three favourite tracks are The Fate of Ophelia, Father Figure + Opalite.

What would your ranking of the tracks be?

"Legitly" is real lol

IT'S HERE!! The Life of a Showgirl has officially been released.

Please use this megathread for your thoughts, reactions, and reviews of the album. To keep the sub clean from repetitive posts, all reactions and review posts will be redirected to this thread.

This thread is for general, overall reactions and thoughts about the album itself. If you would like to discuss a specific song in more detail, you're also welcome to use one of the song megathreads linked below.

Song Megathreads:

1. The Fate of Ophelia

2. Elizabeth Taylor

3. Opalite

4. Father Figure

5. Eldest Daughter

6. Ruin The Friendship

7. Actually Romantic

8. Wi$h Li$t

9. Wood

10. CANCELLED!

11. Honey

12. The Life of a Showgirl (ft. Sabrina Carpenter)

A lot of people told me they thought this album would be right up my alley. They said that about THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, which I appreciated but didn't like, so I thought they might be wrong. A few tracks in, I realised The Life of a Showgirl was exactly the style of Taylor I had been missing. I already love The Fate of Ophelia - I won't go into too much detail on that one because I feel like it doesn't need much of an explanation - but musically, this whole album was her most interesting since reputation, or at least Lover, and I found some of her most compelling songwriting on this tracklist.

Every song engaged me in some way. One of my biggest criticisms of Taylor, thus far, is that often when I listen to an album, I only remember a couple of songs. I could say something about every track here, but the first half was definitely dryer than the back. I got to Eldest Daughter, worried it was gonna be a repeat of evermore or Midnights. After that, though, the songs picked up, and I actively enjoyed the second half of the LP.

I really related to the start of Eldest Daughter. Posting my Taylor reviews really opened my eyes to how heartless and cruel people can be in an online comment section. I probably know exactly how Taylor feels. Joking aside, it's interesting to hear her embrace Gen Z and internet terminology. She starts talking about memes and there was another song later where she mentioned “girlbossing too close to the sun”. I don’t find this corny at all and think it's authentic to hear her using real lingo she probably uses outside of her music.

Ruin the Friendship could have a shout at being the best song on the album, if we don't count The Fate of Ophelia, but personally I'd be more inclined to give it to a later track, like The Life of a Showgirl. It tells a compelling story and has a great bassline. I don't know who produced this album, but I like it. I knew I'd heard she disses Charli XCX on here, and for some reason I thought it was Father Figure, which was weird, since I couldn't understand how it related to Charli. I now know that Actually Romantic was the supposed diss and it's not that harsh. It also works as a song with no added context, which is good. This is where Taylor gets dangerously close to sounding corny, whenever she gets snarky and sarcastic it rubs me the wrong way, but it was funny to hear her compare Charli to a Chihuahua in a handbag.

Wood is a track I've heard a lot about. I know it's loaded with innuendo, and I'll need to go back and make sure I catch it all. The song sounds like a hit, but is apparently supposed to be disgustingly dirty? I definitely understood a lot of the references, but it didn't seem that bad to me. Either I'm missing something egregious or I have different standards for what constitutes explicit - I'd guess the latter. I was terrified that CANCELLED! was going to be the corniest Taylor since reputation. It's very hard to pull off a self-aware song about cancel culture, without coming off as a buffoon. Luckily, she took the angle of talking about her friends, and the only real downside was her trying to come off as a bit hard and menacing. Taylor isn't as nonchalant as she tries to sound in certain songs, but at least she wasn't actively bashing “woke” culture, or whining about critics. It seems Taylor allows public criticism to seep into her work too often, but I can't talk too much - my favourite artist is Eminem.

Finally, Honey was a lovely song, with an obvious but endearing concept, and the title track, The Life of a Showgirl, wrapped things up. I was skeptical from the moment I saw this tracklist. Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter. I didn't know they would mesh well and though I didn't necessarily feel a chemistry between the two, it was a good duet. It was a bit weird to hear Taylor as the one looking up to Sabrina, but that's only because of outside context. The narrative of the song was great and it really did wrap up the album well. I feel like this would sound great live.

I'm really glad to end on a positive note. If I had done this in September, and THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT had been the last album, I might not have checked out The Life of a Showgirl. Thankfully, she's taken another step back towards the version of herself that I like. I don't think Taylor will ever be my artist, just because she does so little to interest me that other artists don't do better, but I'm walking away with a good few records to enjoy, and a more informed understanding of music overall.