Taylor Swift’s new album, The Life of a Showgirl, is pretty cringey and not her best lyrical work, and I love every minute of it.

The album’s 12 tracks show us a side of Taylor Swift we haven’t really seen before — it’s flirty, sassy, catchy and her brattiest album yet.

The Swiftie universe is possibly the most divided it’s ever been over the latest album, which was released at 10 p.m. local time Thursday. Social media is a whiplash between fans who claim the album may just be her best work yet and fans who are offput by “cringey” lyrics and “bad” songwriting.

Personally, I think the album’s critics just aren’t having enough fun.

Throughout her first 11 albums, she has taken us on a musical whirlwind. The girl who started as a cute country pop artist in her debut album became moody and intense in her 2017 Reputation album, then folky and soft in her pandemic-era albums Folklore and Evermore.

Now, fans are seeing her in a new era. She’s engaged to football star Travis Kelce, seemingly quite happy in her relationship, and arguably the most famous she’s ever been. And she tells us all about it in The Life of a Showgirl.

A listen-through tells fans more than we ever needed to know about her relationship in songs like “Wood,” her struggle to get rights to her own music in “Father Figure” and her sassiness in working through relationships with other artists in “Actually Romantic.”

It’s a no-skips album for me.

We know Swift is a strong lyricist – she’s shown us time and again in her albums. Admittedly, a lot of her lyrics in this album are pretty cringey. Lyrically, she’s done better.

This isn’t an album to lyrically analyze for hours, read like poetry and cry to. Instead, it’s an album for parties, sparkling beverages, dancing and blasting in the car — which is exactly what she promised us it would be.

In the past, it’s taken me several listens through new Taylor Swift albums to really get into it.

I was hooked on The Life of a Showgirl from track one: “The Fate of Ophelia.” Immediately, it set the stage for the album: moody sass with an addictive beat. It’s an ode to fiancé Kelce, alluding to his love saving her from Shakespearean tragedy.

Don’t read the next line if you’re a football fan. Taylor Swift was so sweet to dumb down her lyrics in this album for Kelce to understand.

If the first track hooked me, track two reeled me in. “Elizabeth Taylor” has to be my favorite track on the album. It’s an instant earworm with a startling beat drop that gives a nod to late Hollywood star Taylor in what almost sounds like a cry for help from Swift.

She laments relationships that have ended over the years of her stardom due to the pressure of such a big spotlight. She seems to beg Taylor to tell her that this time, her relationship will finally last.

The fourth track, “Father Figure,” gets an honorable mention from me as well. Fans are hearing various stories in the song, but I hear a diss track against her former record label, from which she recently bought back all of her music after a long battle for the rights to the songs she wrote.

Early in the song, the term “father figure” applies to Scott Borchetta, painting him as a figure in Swift’s early career who offered guidance and mentorship, then later applies to Swift as she takes back power over her art.

“Eldest Daughter,” track five, is getting a lot of internet hate. As an eldest daughter myself, I think it’s a sweet and sad ode to growing up with a younger sibling and wanting so badly to be the cool example for them, but always feeling like you fall a little short.

“Every eldest daughter was the first lamb to the slaughter, so we all dressed up as wolves,” she says.

And she’s right. Being an eldest daughter is taking all of the first blows, then feeling the need to put on a strong face for your younger sibling to reassure them that it will all be OK.

“Wood” and “CANCELLED!” are two more of my favorite tracks on the album. We’ve heard Taylor Swift allude to being sexy and spicy in earlier songs like “Dress.” This time, she holds nothing back, and for those of us who have grown up with her music, hearing this new, explicit side of her unleash is — to put it simply — so fun.

Meanwhile, “CANCELLED!” talks about cancel culture and how Swift’s perspective on people has changed after years of living under a microscope.

We’re seeing a new era of Swift in this album — one where she’s open about the happiness in her relationship and outwardly flirty, sometimes explicitly so.

People expect a lot from artists like Taylor Swift, and, as it goes, everybody wants something different. After all, how do you please a few hundred million fans with 12 songs?

The answer is: you don’t. But mark my words — in a few weeks the haters will come around, like they always do, and learn to have a little fun with The Life of a Showgirl. That’s what it’s all about.