On October 3, 2025, Taylor Swift released her 12th album, “The Life of a Showgirl.” The album is doing just as well as you would expect a new offering from Swift to do. But, despite its success, some are debating how good it actually is.
“The Life of a Showgirl” is certainly a departure from Swift’s usual deep, heartbreaking fare — probably because she has no heartbreaks to write about right now. The songs are upbeat, the lyrics are more straightforward, and the mood is just happier. While people debate the album’s merits, one woman suggested that liking the album means something very specific about who you are and what you’ve been through.
Danielle McCleerey, a spiritual coach who posts about astrology and shadow work on social media, said in a recent video that there is a specific type of person who will enjoy the album. “The only people who will love and appreciate this album for what it is are those of us who have done our own nervous system work and shadow work to heal our own addiction to chaos,” she declared.
“In some of the interviews that Taylor did … she said, ‘There was a part of me that always felt like I’d lose my edge if I wasn’t truly miserable,’” she continued. “And this album is such a perfect interpretation of, like, ‘Look … I actually am really happy, and I’m clearly not addicted to chaos anymore.’”
McCleerey explained that people who feel differently about the album are still unhappy in their own lives. “The people who will not like it are the people who need her to be miserable in order to be validated in the fact that they are not healing their own misery,” she said. “Because misery loves company, right?”
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McCleerey used her own experience as an example. “I used to be so addicted to chaos,” she shared. “Like, if I didn’t have a fire to put out, I would feel like I wasn’t doing enough.”
She compared her healing to the feeling this album evokes in the listener. “And when I healed that, and I broke up with my nervous system’s addiction to chaos, I actually found, like, look, I’m still alive and actually I can be a lot more successful,” she said.
She went on to say, “And that’s what this album is … Those of us who have … done that work, we love it and appreciate it for what it is, and are collectively celebrating a happy, healthy, healed Taylor.”
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Everyone can connect to that pain, whether it’s through a breakup, a personal loss, or some bad news. If she turned away from the themes found in songs like “All Too Well” and “Last Kiss,” Swift worried that no one would get it anymore. “I used to have this dark fear that … if I ever were truly happy and free, being myself and nurtured by a relationship, what happens if the writing just dries up?” she said in an interview with BBC Radio 1 following the album release, per BBC News.
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While some fans may find that “The Life of a Showgirl” isn’t quite their cup of tea, its success proves that Swift’s worries were unfounded. Plenty of people are still relating to her happier work.
However, that doesn’t mean that you have to have healed from all past trauma to enjoy it or to dislike it, for that matter. McCleerey’s take is interesting, but it is also exclusionary. Swift has a huge portfolio of music. Not every album will be a hit with every fan. It’s that way for every artist. People can enjoy happy music even if they’re going through something hard, and people can enjoy sad songs even when they aren’t dealing with trauma.
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Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
