Olivia Rodrigo’s girlishness is her superpower.
She recently turned 23, but it feels like even 30 years from now, Rodrigo will still be all smiles and waves in babydoll dresses.
But, as fans already know, that perky veneer is often a shroud over her aching vulnerability, which is spotlighted with intensity on her melodically mature third album, out now.
The mouthful of a title – “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love” – is actually perfect, if cumbersome.
These 13 songs swing from the giddy rush produced by the boy with “floppy hair” who takes her out to dinner (“U + Me = “The Cure.” Or her namechecking the band’s “Just Like Heaven” in “Drop Dead,” the galloping first single from the album.
Romance, it seems, makes Rodrigo sad, especially when longing for her partner on “Maggots for Brains” (“I’m a sad shell of a woman … but that’s the thing that happens when my baby goes away”).
But she also basks in flirtation, as heard on the pop-alicious “Drop Dead,” with that Swiftian descriptor of her beau “looking like an angel on the walls of Versailles” among the best of her still-burgeoning career.
Rodrigo isn’t an esoteric wordsmith, but that’s exactly what makes her so likeable. Her diary entry-style lyrics highlight her relatability and, coupled with a voice that imbues those words with breathy passion, she’s continuing to stake her claim among young pop-rock royalty.
Here are some of the best songs on “You Seem So Sad for a Girl So in Love.”
‘What’s Wrong with Me’
Rodrigo has often spoken of her adoration of The Cure, so why not tap Smith, the Governor of Gloom, for her first-ever recorded collaboration?
While the lyrics suit the downer of the title (“It’s like somebody put a weight on my chest/I should talk to a friend, but I can’t get out of bed”), musically it’s a gorgeous synth bop. Rodrigo also seemingly nods to The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside” with the line, “My head is spinning and my stomach is sick,” part of the sublime chorus featuring Smith.
The Cure leader and Rodrigo make an unconventional match on paper, but their shared acknowledgement of how the pining is the hardest part exemplifies their kindred spirits.
‘The Cure’
Where “Drop Dead” picked up the fizzy pace of previous Rodrigo barnburners “Bad Idea Right?” and “Good 4 U,” the second single from “YSPSFAGSIL” highlights some of her most introspective songwriting.
Just as the song starts to lull with strummed guitar chords and Rodrigo’s near-whispered vocals, it kicks into a sumptuous chorus laden with strings and vivid imagery about heads full of poison, hearts full of doubt and toxins in bloodstreams, a love story tainted by insecurity.
‘My Way’
The whizzing keyboards and propulsive beat are reminiscent of Avril Lavigne on this taut pop-rocker, where Rodrigo douses her foe with snark and serrated guitar riffs.
She turns complete Mean Girl, taunting whoever might want to take her man with sharp words including, “You send him another poem and think that he’ll let me go” and “You keep calling but you never get the message.”
Rodrigo admits to her pettiness in the lyrics, but isn’t decelerating the stinging point: “Don’t go where you don’t belong.”
‘Stupid Song’
Rodrigo adeptly steers this slow-burner from the quiet first verse, her voice adopting a sugary lilt. But by the second verse, a racing beat arrives and never loosens its grip, especially as Rodrigo climbs the chorus.
Subtle key changes shift throughout and the song’s bridge is an intoxicating balance of burst and contraction. And when Rodrigo sings, “You should feel how I feel when somebody says your name,” her unabashed yearning sounds anything but stupid.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.usatoday.com ’
