Taylor Swift loves her mad women and outlaw ladies, her queens with big reputations. She also loves her Old Hollywood movie stars, from Clara Bow to Barbara Stanwyck to Bette Davis. So it would be bizarre if she didn’t have an Elizabeth Taylor obsession. La Liz was an opulent mess her whole life. She was the most famous woman of the 20th century, as Taylor is now — the ultimate showgirl. Everything she did was on an epic scale — her movies, her clothes, her diamonds, her violet eyes, her marriages, her scandals.
But “Elizabeth Taylor” is so much more than just the peak of her long-running Liz fascination. It’s a statement of purpose, the heart-on-fire synth-pop swoon at the core of her dazzling new album The Life of a Showgirl . She and Max Martin and Shellback go 12 for 12 — they b