A new Taylor Swift era is upon us.
Like smoke billowing up through the chimney at the Christmas tree farm, the signs were there throughout Monday. Yes, they were numerologically coded. Yes, they were quickly solved with the intensity and devotion of Charles Babbage breaking the Vigenère cipher. The state-sanctioned social account Taylor Nation posted a 12-photo carousel on Instagram with the caption: “Thinking about when she said ‘See you next era…’” A countdown to 12 minutes past midnight appeared on Swift’s website. The podcasting community also got involved. Travis and Jason Kelce previewed an upcoming episode of their New Heights show featuring a special guest, whose silhouette was blacked out but whose wavy hairline was immediately recognizable to anyone who has watched footage of an Eras Tour show performed in more than 50 percent humidity.
At 12:12 a.m. Tuesday on the dot, the suspicions were confirmed. Swift’s website updated with preorder links for her upcoming 12th album. And in joint posts from her own and the New Heights social media accounts, Swift shared a clip of her interview on the show revealing its title, The Life of a Showgirl.
The full interview will be out on Wednesday. But we already know a bit about this new era. Its color is orange. Not the rustic orange that accented the Evermore era, but bright, glittery orange, paired with a contrasting, shiny mint green. The album should be out by October 13, the date by which Swift’s website promises to ship vinyls. Travis Kelce is already very involved in the promotion.
Also—apparently, if you believe the leaked lyrics—Swift says the words “my dick.”
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Please stop reading now if you’d like to avoid any mention of alleged leaks about the album, of which there have been many. Images of what look like the vinyl’s liner notes—containing track titles, the producer and writer credits, and half-blurry lyrics—have made the rounds on the internet, especially on X, TikTok, and Reddit. I have no foolproof way of verifying whether any of this is real, but based on how quickly many of these leaks were taken down for copyright infringement, I’m inclined to think they are. The leaked track list includes 12 songs, and their titles seem to match up with clues from the 12 photos in the Taylor Nation Instagram carousel; for example (according to the leaks), the 12th track includes a feature by Sabrina Carpenter, who is in the 12th photo, and the fourth song is called “Father Figure,” while the fourth photo is of Swift performing “The Man.”
The leaked liner notes also contain what would be a major revelation about The Life of a Showgirl, which is that Swift wrote the songs for this album exclusively with pop producers Max Martin and Shellback. And sure enough, Swift has added a playlist to her Spotify page, branded in the aesthetics of this new era, of all the songs she’s made with Martin and Shellback, from Red to Reputation. (By the way, she’s back to using the original versions.)
Martin doesn’t own pop production like he did six, 10, or even 25 years ago, but he’s still a master craftsman, and his taut precision is something that’s been missing from Swift’s last few projects, which have mostly been collaborations with Jack Antonoff and the National’s Aaron Dessner that have been a bit looser. Neither Antonoff’s nor Dessner’s name appears on the leaked vinyl. That’s particularly notable in the case of Antonoff, who has been part of every Swift album for over a decade, though he could easily show up as a collaborator on bonus tracks. This recent post from the Electric Lady Studios IG account of him at work was conspicuous, and Swift loves a deluxe album.
But back to “my dick.” The lyric, allegedly, comes from “Father Figure.” The full stanza is this:
I’ll be your father figure
I’ll drink that brown liquor
I can make deals with the devil
Because my dick’s bigger
Crotch comparisons over a Max Martin dance beat? I know someone who’s been streaming Babygirl!
Is it a threat? A come-on? Is Taylor trying to find the words to say Daddy’s home? I love a Taylor Swift song that could be about Kelce or Scooter Braun or Olivia Rodrigo. I love a Taylor Swift song that says “my dick”! Swift has gotten more freewheeling lyrically as her career has progressed, and she’s taken on a man’s point of view for a song before, but I still did not see this one coming. It’s a treat that an artist as obsessed over as Swift can still genuinely surprise us. And if that surprise comes in the form of a metaphorical penis, so be it.
Plus, given that so much of Swift’s public life these days (including the rollout of The Life of a Showgirl thus far) is about her relationship with Kelce, it’s compelling and refreshing to get a hint that she’s interested in embodying a kind of masculine power on this album. I must confess that a Taylor Swift who is centrally interested in being the girlfriend of a football player leaves me a bit cold. Do the lyrics to “Fifteen” mean nothing anymore? But a Taylor Swift who wants everyone to listen to her say “my dick’s bigger”? Let’s hear what she has to say.
