If you thought for one second that– amidst the U.S. government shutdown, peace talks in the Middle East, the cancellations and un-cancellations of talk show hosts, fearmongering towards basic painkillers like acetaminophen, and discussion of this weekend’s Georgia-Auburn game– your editor would ignore Taylor Swift’s latest album “The Life of a Showgirl”, you are sorely mistaken.

In recent years, Swift’s music has perhaps become the only constant variable in our calamitous world–well, her and backlash to said music. And also new iPhone releases in the fall. Go figure.

For me personally, her songs usually take a few listens before I grow to like them. “The Life of a Showgirl” is certainly no different, although I already like it a lot better than “The Tortured Poet’s Department” which felt a bit long and unwieldy as a concept album.

“The Life of a Showgirl” is pure pop, with equal parts mystique and silliness. I saw a Youtube comment underneath an official video for the song “Elizabeth Taylor” that said, and I quote: “okay it feels like Reputation with a touch of Midnights vibe song”. That assessment is, in my view, very accurate for not only that song but the entire album. (Shoutout to producers Max Martin and Shellback for bringing back PERCUSSION in Swift’s songs, for crying out loud.)

Long story short, I like the album. For someone who’s been a “Swiftie” since high school, it feels like a bit like deja vu reading all of the discourse online on “The Life of a Showgirl” because I’m old enough to remember when Swift’s “Reputation” was ripped to shreds, derided as a commercial flop and quasi-political fumble. Now many critics make the case for it being her best album. (I’d raise my hand to that!)

My favorite songs off “The Life of a Showgirl” at the moment are “Father Figure”, “Ruin the Friendship” and “Honey”, although I bet my butt that “Opalite” will be the leading radio single for the rest of 2025 for obvious reasons. (Best wishes to the happy couple! That guy Travis seems alright).

Last week, my co-worker Mark raised his concern that I might get sued for constantly quoting poems and songs in my columns and I laughed it off, telling him that such a thing couldn’t possibly happen to a righteous, good-looking small-town editor like myself (Okay, I didn’t say it quite like that, but a little something to that effect). Although if any artist would sue me for such a trivial thing, it probably would be Taylor Swift, so I’ll refrain from sharing her lyrics in this column for the time being.

So I’ll end with this: Stream her music legally, buy the merch, please don’t be that annoying Swiftie, yada yada yada. Like I said, the world sucks, but we can enjoy the little things in moderation.

Andrea Gutierrez is the managing editor of the Bryan County News.