The whole picture is right there from the start. In the first few seconds of "The Fate of Ophelia," track one on Taylor Swift's 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl , a commanding drum fill sets up a dreamy keyboard line, and then comes the bass: huge and buoyant, like one of those bouncing balls in old cartoons that follow a song's lyrics and direct you to sing along. Swift takes a cue from that limber bottom and lets her voice dip and bend — she sounds smitten and a bit hungry as she recalls first contact with her now-forever lover, but also self-aware and playful, so sure of herself that she fills this latest confession with one-liners even as she knows her listeners will take it very seriously. "I heard you calling on the megaphone," she swoons. "You wanna see me aaall aloooone.

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