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 "On her 12th studio album, the pop superstar is eager to embrace the future — but not before addressing some unfinished business."

"‘The Life of a Showgirl’ acts as an implicit capstone to Taylor Swift’s career, bringing several major narrative arcs to a close."

To understand what’s been driving Taylor Swift lately, skip ahead to a pair of cheeky, exuberant songs tucked into the back half of her new album, The Life of a Showgirl.

The first is “Actually Romantic,” a sly anthem about an adversary whose obsessive attention starts to feel indistinguishable from desire. “It sounded nasty, but it feels like you’re flirting with me,” Swift teases over a grinding guitar riff, before landing on a breathless punch line: “It’s kind of making me wet.”

Not long after comes “Wood,” a playful, almost campy love song devoted to a partner who always delivers. Riding a jubilant guitar riff that nods to the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” Swift layers metaphor after blushing metaphor before cooing, “It ain’t hard to see / His love was the key / That opened my thighs.”

The through line is unmistakable: Swift is ravenous — not for conflict, but for renewal, for intimacy, for what comes after the battles.

That hunger defines her 12th studio album, a deceptively understated collection that peers behind the mask of stardom and wrestles with the effort it takes to break through it. For more than a decade, Swift has ruled as pop’s undisputed alpha, fiercely defending her throne. Showgirl isn’t quite a farewell to that chapter, but it does glance back warily — even as it races forward with a joy that feels almost uncontained.