Taylor Swift’s newest album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” features shallow lyrics but delivers some catchy tunes for those hoping to expand a “songs to sing in the car” playlist.

Swift’s 12th album comes on the heels of her Eras Tour, the highest-grossing tour of all time, and her engagement to tight end Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs. It also arrives a little over a year after her 11th album, “The Tortured Poet’s Department.” 

Swift co-produced this album with Max Martin and Karl Johan Schuster, professionally known as Shellback, with whom she worked on some of her greatest hits like “Shake it Off,” “Blank Space,” and “22.” For those who were hoping that it would continue the lyricism of “The Tortured Poet’s Department,” prepare for disappointment. Lyrics like “a toy chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse” and “Everybody’s so punk on the internet… / Every joke’s just trolling and memes” often feel forced and cheesy rather than beautiful and poetic.

In a recent appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Swift described “The Life of a Showgirl” as the opposite side of her persona from her previous album.

“[The Tortured Poet’s Department] was the character of the poet and this I wanted to be the character of the showgirl, which is other aspects of a person’s personality where you’re funny, feisty, having a blast, flirty, sort of tongue-in-cheek and a little scandalous,” Swift said. 

The album has plenty of scandalous and raunchy moments, including the album cover, the music video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” and songs like “Wood.” And unfortunately, even the more wholesome songs on the album feel lyrically limited. However, the overall message of the album shows a more wholesome interior to the showgirl’s life, delivered through fun, upbeat music.

The first track of the album, “The Fate of Ophelia,” encompasses the transition from the melancholic poet to the life of a showgirl, beginning with soft piano but fading into upbeat synth. Swift sings, “And if you’d never come for me / I might’ve drowned in the melancholy.” Saved from her melancholic era by a happy relationship, Swift enters the era of a showgirl. 

But in the next track, “Elizabeth Taylor” Swift discusses the disconnect between the glamorous side of her life and wanting to find happiness with another person. Swift muses “oftentimes it doesn’t feel so glamorous to be me” after a series of ruined relationships. She sings, “Elizabeth Taylor, do you think it’s forever? / In the papers, on the screen, and in their minds,” seemingly addressing the speculations that marriage in stardom doesn’t last.

The fifth track, which is known for being the most vulnerable on her albums, continues this theme. In “Eldest Daughter,” Swift sings about her commitment to the vow of marriage. She confesses, “When I said I don’t believe in marriage / That was a lie,” because, as she sings later, “I thought that I’d never find that.” 

In “Wi$h Li$t” Swift sings about wanting love rather than the coveted Hollywood lifestyle: “I just want you, / Have a couple kids, got the whole block looking like you.” While she sings about this desire through upbeat music surrounded by fun, flirty lyrics, the underlying message is less “showgirl” and more “homebody.”

Yet, the album is still about the life of a showgirl, and that is especially evident in the lack of songs that the majority of her fan base can relate to. Even love songs like “Honey” and “Wi$h Li$t” are framed in the context of her extreme stardom.

Swift has always written songs about her personal experiences, but in her earlier days of fame, that experience was more similar to her fan base’s experiences. But in this album, it is almost impossible to separate the singer and her music. Now, friends who were once high school classmates become “cloaked in Gucci and in scandal” in her song “CANCELLED!”

Despite what seems to be a lyrical disconnect, “The Life of a Showgirl” is thematically and musically cohesive. Perhaps, as Swift sings in the album’s title track, “[we] don’t know the life of a showgirl, babe / And [we’re] never, ever gonna.” But Swift’s newest album gives listeners a glimpse into the life behind the sequins while also delivering a few bops along the way.