Concise does not mean less complex. Saying more with less is an incredibly difficult task, but Taylor is up to it. The Life of a Showgirl (TLOAS) is the complete opposite of its predecessor, The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD). And across 12 songs in TLOAS, she had a few to make…and she has a fun time doing it.

I did some data analysis for her content, as usual, but found myself gravitating towards certain themes.

If you want to review all the data visualizations, visit my Tableau. Go to the Tableau

Fame is hell, and she is its queen

For much of Taylor’s career, she’s likened love to heaven, hell, and everything in between. In TTPD, she describes how deeply intwined her love and life and resigned herself to the deep loneliness of fame. She'll live in an ivory tower alone—it’s a hell of her of her own making.

TTPD | Clara Bow - It's hell on earth to be heavenly
TLOAS | CANCELLED! - Welcome to my underworld, it'll break your heart

In the opening track of TLOAS, Taylor shares her resignation. Yet, someone willing to pursue resurrects her. He wraps himself around her life, and pulls her back into the fires of passion and fame. This time, she welcomes the heat. This verse in The Fate of Ophelia is a significant comparison to the lovers of her past. They shriveled under the bright lights of fame:

TTPD | How Did it End - He was a hot house flower to my outdoorsman
TLOAS| Elizabeth Taylor - All the right guys promised they'd stay, under bright lights, they withered away, but you bloom

Her lover blooms, and with him, she does too.

Showgirls across the eras

Only when your girlish glow flickers just so
Do they let you know
It's hell on earth to be heavenly
Them's the breaks, they don't come gently
- Clara Bow, The Tortured Poets Department

In TTPD, Clara Bow captures the cyclical nature of fame and celebrity. Young women are offered up to its altar and nameless men heap praises onto them. Their vivacity and youth is sucked out of them until they're discarded for the next pretty young thing. It's something Taylor ruminated about in her youth. The path from pop princess to queen is a fight to the top, and that crown is stained with the blood every woman who tried.

Red | The Lucky One - And all the young things line up to take your place
Red | Nothing New - I know someday I'm gonna meet her, it's a fever dream… The kind of radiance you only have at 17
TTPD | Clara Bow - Take the glory, give everything, promise to be dazzling
TTPD | Clara Bow -The crown is stained, but you're the real queen

Clara Bow and The Life of a Showgirl share the perspectives of newcomers to the industry. While the former laments the cost, the later revels in the decision. It's the fate that she chose, she's married to it, and she's immortal now. Years of practice led her here. She is the devil and the father figure, and yes, her dick is bigger.

She said, "I'd sell my soul to have a taste of a magnificent life that's all mine"
But that's not what showgirls get
They leave us for dead
- Title track of The Life of a Showgirl

Redefining all the blues

Honey is another song I gravitate to on the album. It’s playful and cheeky, but also represents another theme on the album: recontextualizing her past experiences. Taylor is a showgirl dressed as a phoenix, unearthing new meaning from the ashes of her past selves and eras. You need it to grow, and it's a necessity to adapt in the ways show business requires you to. Time with this new lover has given her the space to dream, and has helped her turn past pain into peace. It's all over the album, but clearest in this song.

Redefining blues

reputation | gorgeous - Ocean blue eyes, looking in mine, I feel like I might sink and drown and die
Lover | Paper Rings - I'm with you even if it makes me blue, which takes me back to the color that we painted your brother's wall
folklore | hoax - Don't want no other shade of blue but you, no other sadness in the world would do
TLOAS | Honey - Redefined all of those blues when you say [Honey]

Painting her life

evermore | tolerate it - I made you my temple, my mural, my sky, Now I'm beggin' for footnotes in the story of your life
TLOAS | Honey - Buy the paint in the color of your eyes and graffiti my whole damn life, honey

Lovely

evermore | She would've made such a lovely bride, what a shame she's fucked in the head
TLOAS | Honey - And when anyone called me "lovely", they were finding ways not to praise me, but you say it like you're in awe of me

Bonus findings

Here are some other paired lines that I liked across the discography.

Shattered glass and masked crusaders

folklore | mirrorball - , The masquerade revelers, drunk as they watch my shattered edges glisten
TLOAS | CANCELLED! - Can't you see my infamy loves company? Now they've broken you like they've broken me, but a shattered glass is a lot more sharp
TLOAS | CANCELLED! - Beware the wrath of masked crusaders

Sequins

folklore | cardigan - Sequin smile, black lipstick, sensual politics
TLOAS | TLOAS - Pain hidden by the lipstick and lace, sequins are forever

Immortality

TLOAS | Elizabeth Taylor - All my white diamonds and lovers are forever
TLOAS | TLOAS - But I'm immortal now, baby dolls

RTF

evermore | dorothea - But are you still the same soul I met under the bleachers? Well, I guess I'll never know, and you'll go on with the show
TLOAS | Ruin the Friendship - And my advice is to always answer the question, better that than to ask it all your life, should've kissed you anyway

Lonely towers

TTPD | Cassandra - I was in my tower weaving nightmares, twisting all my smiles into snarls
TTPD | The Albatross - Locked me up in towers, but I’d visit in your dreams
TTPD | The Fate of Ophelia - All that time, I sat alone in my tower

Dancing through the lightning strikes

TLOAS is a joyful album where you can see Taylor reframe her past experiences and owns the costs of fame. With her masters, her narrative, and lover firmly in hand, there is no question that she does.

…and she wouldn't have it any other way.