Steve Newall: Flicks.co.nz editor on the release of Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl

Taylor Swift's much-anticipated 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, dropped on Friday after weeks of hype and speculation.

For this album, the 35-year-old artist reunited with Swedish hitmakers Max Martin and Shellback to deliver a more upbeat project with some light introspection. 

Flicks.co.nz editor Steve Newall says the album's prompted mixed responses - but it's already broken several key records. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
This is the Fate of Aphelia. It is off the
brand new Taylor Swift album The Life of a Show Goal,
which everybody's talking about.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Look.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
I like Taylor Swift. I really respect what she has achieved.
I like the album's reputation and read and folklore, the
ones that kind of broadened her range and you know,
had a bit of spunk to them. But this is
pleasantly perfect pop is the way I would probably sum
it up. Steve Newell, our entertainment contributor, is Worth us
now editor at Flix dot co dot in ze, good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Good morning, pleasantly pop?

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Is that Is that fair enough?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
She promised, she promised bangers. Yeah, and I'm not sure
that the response has matched that, reteaming with super producer
Max Martin, who's respons for many bangers in his career,
but yeah, the response has been a bit tempered. Look,
I've got I only heard about twenty seconds of this album,
and that's when I was waiting for the Lift events

(01:06):
Cinema's Queen Street after seeing one battle after another again,
and I could hear it coming out of a cinema
door'll I'll explain why in a second. But let's just
focus focus on the good things for Taylor Swift, you know,
let's focus on the positive things about her difficult life.
Her twelfth album has already broken a bunch of records.
It's broken the record for most streamed album in a
single day so far in twenty five on Spotify, it

(01:30):
has the fate of a Feel, has become the most
streamed song on a single day and Spotify history. These
are all unsurprising things. What has surprised me a little
bit has been the response to it, and also the
focus on the song actually Romantic, which seems to be
a dis track aimed at Charlie xy X, apparently sixteen
months ago had the fantastic song Sympathy as a Knife

(01:52):
on her album Brat, which talked about her insecurity in
the face of someone that seemed like Taylor Swift. Well,
Taylor Swift has taken that as an insult. She's writing
written a song that people have been describing as embarrassing or,
in the case of the guardians, say miss the point
and underscores her tedious obsession with conflict. I think this
might be a bit of a scramble to find enough

(02:13):
material for a record, or enthusiasm to make a record
from swift Hair coming off the back of a global
dominating tour. Maybe this is a bit of a catalog.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah. Look this Father Figure as well, which people are
saying is a dis track against Olivia Rodrigue, who knows
it really annoys me, and I mean she has set
this up, of course, but I kind of get a
bit frustrated. There is this rush whenever she puts an
album out to identify which lover she's talking about, which
colleague or friend or like, you know, everything immediately we
sort of try and identify it. I just suggest maybe
you just didn't either enjoy the enjoy the music and

(02:47):
not look for the drama.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
An interesting video surface will resurface yesterday from the Weaker
of Brat's release by ch how the execs well. She
explains these songs and talks about how the pop industry
pits women against each other. They all have to be
each other's friends, yet they're all treated as rivals, and
some days they feel great, some days they feel terrible.
It's a really weird environment. But this feels like this

(03:09):
Taylor Swift song just completely underscores that whole point, and
it's just odd to dredge something up and make out
that someone's It's basically something says someone's obsessed with me.
But I'm writing it about something that happened sixteen months ago.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, I wonder if anyone saw the movie. Of course,
that came with a movie as well, the Taylor Swift album,
which has been I imagine keeping our cinema's chock a
block over the last couple of days.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
It will be the number one film at the box
office this weekend. It is in the US, but I'd
possibly put movie in inverted quotes. As the Hollywood Reporter
describes it, an eighteen nine minute cinematic experience, neither visual
album nor concert film, and not quite a documentary as
strictly for the diehards. It plays her music video twice.
It has some behind the scenes bits and pieces. It

(03:58):
also has a lot of lyric videos if you're familiar
with those from YouTube. It's basically the lyrics come on
the screen and there's just some static or looped visuals.
This is not a film. Nevertheless, it's destroyed the new
Dwaye Johnson film The Smashing Machine at the US box office.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
And we need to move on to that. Look, if
you've seen the film and she explained what actually romantics
all about, text me ninety two. Ninety two will fill
the people in. Let's quickly, we just got a minute.
Tell me what you think about Dwayne Johnson's The Smashing Machine.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Underwhelming. But before we go, I do also want to
mention that New Zealand artist Lord has joined the international
music Boycott of Israel. After announcing a free effing Palestine
on stage in New York a few days ago while
the stage was bathed in red, white and green lights,
She's joined the no Music for Genocide campaign. This is
mirroring the campaigns against South Africa and the apartheid era.

(04:45):
Over a thousand artists including Buyork, Japanese Breakfast, Kneecap, Massive Attack, Mogwai, Paramore,
and Primal Scream have joined it. It's basically, are they
not streaming their music within the country of Israel until
the prison genocide stops.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Okay, I do love the fact that you'll review for
The Smashing Machine. It was just underwhelming. I think that's
brilliant and I think you're probably onto something there. It
is twenty eight to eleven.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
One last point. The Jerusalem Post had the last laugh
about Lord, with a headline that says Australian singer Lord
joins BDS again.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
Got an issue with that obviously, Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
That's how you get a key week.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Catch up with you next week.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio