For a sense of what’s been animating Taylor Swift lately, fast forward to a pair of sprightly, winky, sweaty songs in the second half of her new album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”

First, there’s “Actually Romantic,” a leering ode to an enemy whose attention is so total, so focused, that it can’t help but feel like a form of lust. “It sounded nasty, but it feels like you’re flirting with me,” Swift sings over a chugging guitar line, before concluding with a pant: “It’s kind of making me wet.”

A couple of songs later comes “Wood,” an almost goofy ode to a … reliable lover. Following an ecstatic guitar intro cribbed heavily from the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” Swift cycles through 10 or so blushing metaphors before singing oh-so-sweetly, “It ain’t hard to see / His love was the key / That

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