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\n\tTaylor Swift<\/a>\u2019s anticipated new album The Life of a Showgirl<\/a><\/em> is finally here<\/a> \u2014 and it\u2019s a glittering spectacle, filled with a cast of characters that includes close friends, rumored foes, and her football-playing fianc\u00e9.<\/p>\n \n\tThe record was created with Shellback and Max Martin in between shows on the career-spanning Eras Tour<\/a>, which lit a fire in the singer-songwriter that blazes across each of its 12 tracks. With her returning production partners, she throws it back to the Nineties, wears George Michael\u2019s influence like showgirl feathers, and brings Sabrina Carpenter into her spotlight. She also tosses out her old adage about not getting lost in petty things and letting her nemeses defeat themselves before she gets a chance to swing. Instead, Swift sets off in search of a knockout. Here is everything we learned from The Life of a Showgirl<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tLooks like there\u2019s more bad blood in the Taylor Swift extended universe. \u201cActually Romantic\u201d takes some pretty cutthroat shots at another pop star who has written music about Swift, one that knows an ex-boyfriend of hers and who may have called her a \u201cboring Barbie.\u201d Fan speculation both before and after the album arrived pointed to one potential new foe: Charli XCX.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tCharli recently married George Daniel, whose bandmate and best friend is none other than The Tortured Poets Department <\/em>muse Matty Healy. When Brat<\/em> dropped, Charli had the internet buzzing with speculation about who Charli was comparing herself to on \u201cSympathy Is A Knife,\u201d a song about her own insecurities when faced with the megastar she kept running into at her boyfriend\u2019s shows. On \u201cActually Romantic,\u201d Swift sings \u201cHigh-fived my ex and then you said you\u2019re glad he ghosted me\/Write me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face\u201d before concluding that no man has ever loved her like this person does.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tNeither song is really all that subtle but, for what it\u2019s worth, Charli explicitly said there were no diss tracks on Brat<\/em><\/a> and that the song was more about her own insecurities. And when fans chanted \u201cTaylor is dead!\u201d at a show, she also spoke out against them and said she would not \u201ctolerate\u201d it. When Swift was asked to comment on the song<\/a> and the state of her friendship with Charli, who opened on the Reputation<\/em> tour in 2018, she lauded the British singer\u2019s writing as \u201csurreal and inventive.\u201d \u2014B.S.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\tEverything Is Actually Romantic But Sympathy Is <\/strong>Not<\/em><\/strong> a Knife<\/strong>\t<\/h2>\n