Taylor Swift shared the inspiration behind her upcoming studio album The Life of a Showgirl.
In an interview on the New Heights podcast, the global pop star relayed that the album tells the story of her life offstage.
"This album is about what was going on behind the scenes in my inner life during [the Eras] tour, which was so exuberant and electric and vibrant," she said. "It just comes from the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life, and so that effervescence has come through on this record."
The singer shared that she created the album alongside music producers Max Martin and Shellback whom she considers her mentors. They previously worked together in hit tracks like "We Are Never Getting Back Together," "Blank Space," "Shake It Off," and "Delicate." The last time they have worked together was on Taylor's Reputation album.
"We've never actually made an album before where it's just the three of us. There's no other collaborators. It's just the three of us making a focused album were it felt like catching lightning in a bottle," she said. "These guys, they are just geniuses in different avenues, in different ways."
Taylor recorded the album in Sweden with the music producers in between breaks during the Eras Tour.
The "Blank Space" hitmaker relayed that The Life of a Showgirl will only have 12 tracks which is far from what she envisioned for her previous album The Tortured Poets Department.
"With Tortured Poets Department, I was like here’s a data dump of everything I thought, felt, experienced in two or three years. Here’s 31 songs. This is 12. There’s not a thirteenth, there’s not other ones coming. This is the record I’ve been wanting to make for a very long time," she highlighted.
"I also wanted it to be every single song is on this album for hundreds of reasons, and you couldn't take one out and it be the same album, you couldn’t add one and be… It's just right," she added.
She further described that the tracks in the album feels like puzzle pieces that fit perfectly together.
"That focus and that kind of discipline with creating an album and keeping the bar really high is something I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time. I tend to write lots and lots of music, so it's a temptation to release lots of music. But oftentimes, I wanted to do an album that was so focused on quality and on the theme and everything fitting together like a perfect puzzle that these 12 songs for my 12th album, I feel like we achieved that and I’m really happy about that," she said.
She went on: “I tend to write lots and lots of music, so it’s a temptation to release lots of music. But oftentimes, I wanted to do an album that was so focused on quality and on the theme and everything fitting together like a perfect puzzle that these 12 songs for my 12th album, I feel like we achieved that and I’m really happy about that."
The Life of A Showgirl will be released on October 3.
The 12 tracks are as follows:
"The Fate of Ophelia"
"Elizabeth Taylor"
"Opalite"
"Father Figure"
"Eldest Daughter"
"Ruin the Friendship"
"Actually Romantic"
"Wi$h Li$t"
"Wood"
"Cancelled!"
"Honey"
"The Life of a Showgirl" ft. Sabrina Carpenter