Discussion Post : Showgirl Temperature Check

Now that the dust has settled, now that the insanity has died down, now that there seems to be a break in the countdowns....I figured it would be a GREAT time to assess how everybody is feeling about this upcoming era and the brand new album.

When The Life of a Showgirl title was first announced on the website I was cheering and clapping like a seal. When I saw the album cover for the first time I was once again cheering and clapping like a seal and I kept right on cheering and clapping like a seal as I scrolled through and looked at all the other pictures. I was cheering and clapping like a seal looking at the alternate covers for the variant versions. I cheered for Max Martin and Shellback. I cheered for 12 tracks. I cheered and clapped for the Shiny Bug collection even for fuck's sake. I kind of half cheered for the variant with the showgirls on the cover (half because PMO with the countdowns for variants but I thought the pic was good.) I cheered for the tracklist. I cheered for Sabrina feature. I CHEERED.

And the fuck of it all is....I'M STILL CHEERING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But I'm looking around and starting to notice that not everyone is necessarily cheering, or at least not cheering as loud as they were when things were first announced. I know we all live on Planet Swiftie, but I fear some of us are living in different parts of Planet Swiftie because I'm over here still thinking "GAG!!!!!!!!!!!!!", while a lot of other people are thinking FLOP.....OH!!!

So let's take this opportunity to air it all out : let's talk about who's thinking gag, who's thinking flop, and who's somewhere in the middle.

As for me, I really am still thinking gag about approximately 95% of it IJBOLLL I CAN ONLY SPEAK MY TRUTH!!!!! I'm gagging over the main album cover, I'm semi-gagging over the alternative covers, I'm gagging over nearly all of the pictures, I'm gagging over 90% of the track list, I'm gagging. I'M GAGGED!!!!! SHOWGIRL IS LIFE!!!!!!!!!

There's only so much a girl like me can complain considering I begged and begged for a tight concise bulletproof pop album and well it seems like she's delivering that...but if there were anything about the era so far I'm thinking "ummmm...." about it would have to be the countdowns to the variants. Look. We all know she's going to do it. We all know there's going to be variants. We all know there's going to probably be too many and there'll probably be think pieces on it. But it really is a disrespect to the nation of Swiftie to do countdowns for them it's just not right....it whips everyone up every single time. She could do ten countdowns always counting down to a variant there would still be some poor soul going "it could be something else!"

Countdowns are for real announcements....not to get everyone paying attention so they'll wind up on the store at the right time to buy another variant of an album they've already bought. Still, she keeps almost getting me because I think the covers fuck. I wanted the yellow and blue showgirl cover sooooo bad but had to resist because I'm the dumbass who already bought the Shiny Bug just because it was purple.

I actually don't mind multiple variants. I just sort of wish she'd release them all at the same time so people can feel like they can CHOOSE which one they'd like, instead of tricking everyone with verbiage like LIMITED RELEASE!! LIMITED EDITION!! WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!! so they feel pressured to buy them all right when they drop. If I had seen Shiny Bug and the showgirl variant side by side....ijbol....purple or not I'd have picked the showgirl one. But she didn't give me that option now did she. Now that PMO.

I also have a bit of trepidation about some of the titles on the track list, but I do have the knowledge from past experiences to realize that just because a title doesn't speak to me right away doesn't mean the song won't go crazy. All the same, Wi$h Li$t is silencing me. CANCELLED! is also silencing me.

There's a certain genre of Taylorism that tends to make me cringe a little bit, and it's the "draw the cat eye sharp enough to kill a man" "with no one around to tweet it" and "I come back stronger than a 90's trend" genre of Taylorism. This is just a part of Taylor and who she is and sometimes she goes to that place, and I've accepted it, long ago as a matter of fact....but sadly both of those track titles are giving me that exact vibe.

But this is sort of the thing about the long wait between the reveal and actually getting to hear the album. The mind conjures up its own ideas of what's about to happen and no one can control whether they feel positively towards a certain image or a certain title, or if they feel negatively towards it.

Everyone's got their own take and their own outlook : so now you know mine. I'm CHEERING with a couple dashes of skepticism towards some of the behaviors...but what about you guys? Are you cheering? Are you cautiously optimistic? Are you just waiting to see what happens and reserving judgment until then? Do you hate the cover? Do you LOVE the cover? Could it have been done better? What about all these variants? Is the track list cringe or cunt?

Share all your thoughts below!!!