New Music Friday – October 3, 2025

October 3, 2025 Ben Pagani

It’s not just any New Music Friday. It’s a Taylor Swift New Music Friday. Let’s get into it.

The Best of New Music Friday:

Taylor Swift – The Life of a Showgirl

Anticipation has a way of setting up either great expectations or hard fails. So far, Taylor Swift, the biggest global music superstar of a generation, has transcended that and landed somewhere in the middle with her latest studio record The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift announced the release of her 12th album on her fiance Travis Kelce’s sports podcast. It set a record with half a billion streams. A “launch event” film, featuring one-of-a-kind footage is getting a theatrical release in more than 100 countries; in the US alone, it sold $15m worth of tickets in 24 hours. The Life of a Showgirl was saved 5 million times before its release. Of course this level of anticipation was always going to occur. This is Taylor Swift we’re talking about. There’s no bigger musician on the planet.

The fan-based reviews are already pouring in. Some Swifties can’t stop crying with joy to have Taylor’s new music in the world. Others aren’t so sure what Swift was trying to accomplish, with some listeners going online to claim that these mellow-pop tracks are completely dull. The reality is probably somewhere in between these extremes.

Think of it like this: The Life of a Showgirl is the direct result of Swift’s largest accomplishment–”The Eras Tour”–and her projection of it. She hand-picks elements from all of her eras, just as she did on tour, and combines what she felt worked best.

Sometimes though, the most notable bits are absent. The electro pop of Reputation and 1989 are missing. Instead, its largely acoustic guitars, misty synth tones, subtle orchestrations and breathy backing vocals on this LP.

“Elizabeth Taylor” is a highlight of the album and will certainly go down in Swift’s discography as a greatest-hits worthy track.

There’s also the fun song “Actually Romantic,” a spiritual follow-up to Tortured Poets’ “thanK you aIMee.” Swift’s Showgirl-era persona is dissing someone, anyone (probably Charli XCX) here. It’s unhinged. “Some people might be offended // But it’s actually sweet, all the time you’ve spent on me,” Swift sings. That reframing is presumably intended to come off as Swift taking the high road, but she still sticks the knife in: “I heard you call me ‘boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave,” she sings, and likens whomever (Definitely Charli, right?) to “a toy chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse.”

The song “Wood” is about Travis Kelce. We’ll leave it at that.

The Life of a Showgirl has its highs and lows, and is currently being rated overall as somewhere in between. It’s a pop culture moment from pop culture’s biggest icon. There’s some good, there’s some bad. That’s the price of being a star in show business, isn’t it?

New Music Friday Top Picks:

AFI – Silver Bleeds the Black Sun… [Run for Cover]

FearDorian & osquinn – Before You Press Play [3500]

Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) [Big Brother]

Rocket – R Is for Rocket [Transgressive]

Snõõper – Worldwide [Third Man]

Sparks – Madder! EP [Transgressive]

Which of these tracks from New Music Friday will you add to your favorite playlists today? Any we missed? Let us know in the comments or on Instagram!

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Ben Pagani

Music Projects Manager at Beyond The Stage Magazine

Ben is a music journalist living and working in Chicago. They joined Beyond The Stage as an intern and have stayed on the staff for several years. Now serving on the editorial board, Ben is proud to be BTS' Music Projects Manager, coordinating coverage between international record labels and our staff. Ben has interviewed, photographed and written about bands from across the world. Ben has lived all over the United States working in television and media. They are an Emmy Award-winning writer. Ben can be found spinning records as 'DJ Wearing Sunglasses' in clubs and basements across the US.