Culture
Are Max Martin and Shellback the downfall of Taylor Swift’s latest album?
The release of Taylor Swift’s 12th LP, The Life of a Showgirl, has been met with divided opinions.
Although a record breaking 2.7m albums were sold on the first day of release, not all these buyers are satisfied.
It might be a push to say the majority are. Online, listeners argue this album is “millennial cringe” and that Swift is showing her “true capitalist self”.
Alongside Swift herself, Max Martin and Shellback produced the album.
Long-time collaborators, they previously helped define 1989 and Reputation. But this marks the first time the trio have exclusively worked together.
1989 and Reputation catapulted Swift to global pop fame.
Through hits such as Blank Space, Shake it Off and Getaway Car, Martin and Shellback provided Swift a clean break from her country roots, throwing her into the deep end of mainstream pop.
However, a decade later the formula feels tired.
So why has The Life of a Showgirl fallen so flat?
Following Swift’s last album The Tortured Poets Department, a lyrically rich 31 song LP radiating heartbreak and introspection, the synthetic glitz and glamour of Showgirl feel false.
In a post-Folklore world, where Swift proved her strength as a lyricist with the help of producer Jack Antonoff, the return to maximalism and Martin-Shellback production feels hollow.
With the loss of Antonoff and the return of Martin and Shellback, has Swift lost the reflective heart of her songwriting?
That’s not to say Showgirl is without merit.
Its production is faultless, and the album follows a clear and fluid theme.
But perhaps that’s the problem. In collaborating solely with Martin and Shellback, Swift may have created her most technically accomplished album but her least emotionally convincing one.
Whether this is a misstep or the purpose of the album remains to be seen.
But the reception of The Life of a Showgirl questions the path Swift is on.
Now the world dominating Eras Tour is over, is the peak of Swift’s career over too?