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Olivia Rodrigo approached the production of her third album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love<\/em>, which came out on Friday, with a specific goal in mind: make \u201cthe \u2018not\u2019 purple album.\u201d<\/a> Simple enough! Step one: abandon the shade of lilac that almost identically adorned her first two album covers. (She essentially distilled the hue into<\/a> sky blue and baby pink for so in love<\/em>\u2019s color palette, but I\u2019ll give it to her. Mission accomplished!) Step two was tougher, and presented a challenge that\u2019s been looming over the entire current class of mainstream artists: actually evolve<\/em> in a climate that\u2019s becoming virtually inhospitable for pop stars.\u00a0<\/p>\n That assessment of the pop landscape might sound dramatic given that we heralded pop music\u2019s triumphant return just two years ago<\/a>. Early 2020s pop was dominated by Taylor Swift\u2019s quarantine albums, which were virtually the only pop music to make waves during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and TikTok, which placed more value on songs<\/a> (or snippets) than actual artists. But in 2024, there was a genuine wave of pop stars having capital-M<\/em> Moments: Charli xcx had Brat Summer<\/a>, Chappell Roan\u2019s delayed surge was capped by the masterpiece anthem \u201cGood Luck, Babe!,\u201d and Sabrina Carpenter became pop\u2019s reigning queen of innuendo via the inescapable \u201cEspresso\u201d and her blockbuster record Short n\u2019 Sweet<\/em>. These pop stars, each with a unique aesthetic and POV, put out music that earned real cultural cachet and critical praise.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rodrigo wasn\u2019t on an album cycle in 2024 and therefore wasn\u2019t central to the pop resurgence rhetoric\u2014though she arguably kicked off the party when her debut, Sour<\/em>, <\/em>launched her into the stratosphere in 2021. (The record spawned four top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with two reaching the top spot.) Rodrigo came from the world of Disney television\u2014like many a buzzy pop star before her\u2014as a cast member of Bizaardvark<\/em> and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series<\/em>. But her lyricism was so adept and captivating right from the start that she straight up leapfrogged the transition phase from family-friendly fresh face to songwriting auteur.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2024, however, Rodrigo was on tour for her sophomore effort, 2023\u2019s Guts<\/em> (a run now more remembered as a launchpad for opening act Chappell Roan). Rodrigo\u2019s second album was undeniably a success\u2014its lead single, \u201cvampire,\u201d debuted at no. 1, and the record was one of the best-reviewed major releases of 2023. But from its continuation of Sour<\/em>\u2019s pop-punk-lite sound to its recycling of that darned purple, it was hard not to feel like there was something creatively stifled about the endeavor.\u00a0<\/p>\n But regardless of Rodrigo\u2019s involvement, 2024\u2019s pop music renaissance was short-lived\u2014though the fallout had little to do with music at all. While Carpenter\u2019s Short n\u2019 Sweet <\/em>follow-up, Man\u2019s Best Friend<\/em>, <\/em>retread a lot of the tongue-in-cheek lyrics and retro-pop sound of its predecessor, it didn\u2019t spawn anything with the staying power of \u201cEspresso.\u201d Carpenter\u2019s biggest lightning-rod moment that cycle came when she was met with some chaste hand-wringing over the album\u2019s depiction of sexuality and gender politics<\/a>. The cover art in particular, which shows Carpenter on her hands and knees while a male figure pulls her hair, dominated the discourse about the record, especially over, you know, how Man\u2019s Best Friend<\/em> sounds. Chappell, meanwhile, was consistently hopping on Instagram to explain her progressive politics<\/a> and her desire for a semblance of privacy<\/a>\u2014both of which you\u2019d think would be seen as signs of a refreshingly down-to-earth pop star but instead received bizarrely condescending criticisms. (As for Charli? She shepherded Brat <\/em>to a certain political campaign<\/a> and is now flirting with abandoning the pop genre altogether<\/a>.) From Madonna to Britney to Beyonc\u00e8, this kind of bad-faith backlash toward female pop stars isn\u2019t new, but when the genre is more fractured than ever, it feels more tangibly effective in shortening the shelf life of stars who already have to fight for our attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite not releasing an album that year, Rodrigo wasn\u2019t immune from the same kind of nonsense. Some of it predated her breakthrough\u2014from the start, she was pitted against Carpenter because of an alleged love triangle involving the two of them and Rodrigo\u2019s High School Musical <\/em>costar Joshua Bassett. (This was largely stoked by Rodrigo\u2019s debut single, \u201cdrivers license,\u201d which many interpreted to be about Bassett.) Carpenter was also opening for Swift on the blockbuster Eras Tour in 2023. Swift initially held dual<\/a> allegiances to Carpenter and Rodrigo (she\u2019s clearly an influence to both artists, but especially Rodrigo: \u201cTAYLOR SWIFT IS THE REASON I WRITE SONGS,\u201d Rodrigo wrote on Instagram<\/a> in 2021), but a songwriting dispute led to Rodrigo giving Swift, Jack Antonoff, and St. Vincent retroactive credit on her Sour <\/em>single \u201cdeja vu\u201d due to its light similarities to Swiftie fan favorite \u201cCruel Summer.\u201d Swift and Rodrigo have rarely interacted since, and a perceived feud between the two is relitigated whenever Rodrigo is back in the press. \u201cI tried not to let it get to me or upset me,\u201d Rodrigo said (after a deep sigh) on The New York Times<\/em>\u2019 Popcast<\/em><\/a> last month when asked about Swift and about fans sleuthing out their supposed beef. \u201cIt was so long ago. I think there\u2019s no use in harping on it. I just try to make songs that I love and try to be kind to other people and supportive of other people.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Accomplishing the evolution that Rodrigo set out for didn\u2019t just mean blocking out the tabloid noise, though\u2014it also implicitly meant divorcing herself from that stifled artistry apparent on Guts<\/em> and her reputation as a millennial nostalgia act<\/a>. Bright, brash electric guitars on tracks like \u201cgood 4 u\u201d and \u201cbrutal\u201d immediately drew comparisons to <\/strong>and Avril Lavigne, and as a result, she attracted fans older than her own Gen Z demographic<\/a>. When gang vocals and other pop-punk signifiers returned on Guts <\/em>hits <\/em>(i.e., \u201call-american bitch,\u201d \u201cget him back!\u201d), it gave the appearance of doubling down\u2014your mileage may vary on whether you interpret that album as a perfection of her craft or a retread of well-covered ground, but it didn\u2019t offer anything particularly surprising.<\/p>\n Thus, Rodrigo intentionally distanced herself from guitars on the production of so in love<\/em>: \u201cI love rock music, and I have such a reverence for rock music, and that\u2019s all that I really listen to,\u201d she told Popcast<\/em>. \u201cBut I think going into it, it didn\u2019t feel exciting to me.\u201d Lead single \u201cdrop dead\u201d offered the first clue on what that shift meant: It\u2019s a shimmering, sweeping chamber pop head rush that maintains the hush of intimacy while tackling soaring emotions. (That dichotomy is also evidenced by the Petra Collins\u2013directed music video, which affords the bedroom in which one dreams about their crush all the grandeur of the Palace of Versailles by \u2026 filming at the Palace of Versailles.) The song was mostly met with acclaim, but its chart performance was a bit tepid\u2014it debuted at no. 1 in early May but has already dropped out of the top 10. It also sparked yet another<\/em> bizarre moral panic, this time over the perceived sexualization of Rodrigo\u2019s baby-doll dresses<\/a>, which got loud enough that she had to comment on it on Popcast<\/em>: \u201cI just think it just shows how we normalize pedophilia in our culture,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just this rhetoric that we\u2019re fed as girls since we\u2019re so little, which is like, \u2018Don\u2019t wear that because then a man is going to sexualize your body, and it\u2019s your fault.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n It seemed like the music was in danger of being drowned out by the bullshit yet again, until so in love<\/em>\u2019s second single, \u201cthe cure,\u201d really signaled the artistic leap Rodrigo was about to take. \u201cThe cure\u201d is a darker, downtempo swerve from \u201cdrop dead\u201d\u2014the verses are delivered in a whispered sneer and contain some truly startling admissions. (\u201cUsed to play a game in my head when I\u2019d date a guy \/ Tally up the girls that he fucked till I start to cry\u201d goes one of the rawest bars.) It all explodes into a chorus that is thoughtful and cleverly written but also delivered with the primal gusto necessary to land its revelatory catharsis: \u201cIt feels like medication, and it\u2019s good for me, I\u2019m sure \/ But it don\u2019t matter how your love feels anymore \/ It\u2019ll never be the cure.\u201d It doesn\u2019t have the guitar riffs or the kiss-off sensibility that have become Rodrigo\u2019s signature, but its stakes and intensity are enough to make it feel like one of her most thrilling songs to date, all while retaining her confessional flair.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say Rodrigo isn\u2019t still wearing her influences on her sleeve, but she\u2019s certainly reaching beyond the millennial canon this time around. She\u2019s cited new wave and post-punk acts<\/a> like the Cure, New Order, Depeche Mode, and Siouxsie and the Banshees as influences, and those sounds are certainly present (literally in the case of Robert Smith, who is featured on the moody duet \u201cwhat\u2019s wrong with me\u201d and has been championing her throughout<\/a> this album cycle). And even though this is her third team-up with alt-pop maestro Dan Nigro\u2014the most important active pop producer this side of Jack Antonoff\u2014their partnership feels fresher than ever. They incorporate those \u201980s synths and strings in service of Rodrigo\u2019s decidedly modern, candid songwriting on a record she\u2019s described<\/a> as a \u201cchronological\u201d recount of a failed relationship from beginning to end. Take highlight \u201cmaggots for brains,\u201d for instance, which pointedly uses brain rot<\/a> as a stand-in for lovesickness, all over an \u201cAge of Consent\u201d\u2013type bass line <\/strong>Or the kinetic \u201cexpectations,\u201d on which she declares, \u201cI won\u2019t settle for a guy with a fake job \/ He seems so desperate for loving but, baby, I\u2019m not\u201d over Devo-esque buzzes and whirrs. From the soft romance of \u201cu + me = emotions while completing an evolution of her sound. (It also helps that these influences suit her voice much better than the pop-punk pastiche ever did.)\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n There are still some growing pains present\u2014the Veronicas-indebted \u201cmy way\u201d feels like a leftover from Sour <\/em>or Guts<\/em>, while the lullaby \u201choneybee\u201d overplays its softness, a trap Rodrigo has fallen into on previous ballads. But so in love <\/em>is still proof that it\u2019s possible to progress the pop sound in an oddly oppressive modern pop landscape without losing the touch that separates a star in a crowded mainstream. Those clued into Rodrigo\u2019s evolution will certainly appreciate the wink at the center of the record with the aptly titled \u201cpurple.\u201d It\u2019s a nod to her once-signature color, but Rodrigo pays tribute to it like she\u2019s actually seeing <\/em>it for the first time: \u201cI melt with you \/ Your red with my blue \/ Now I see the world in purple.\u201d It\u2019s a sweetly romantic sentiment, but also an ode to blocking out the noise and finally experiencing the world in Technicolor. And like the rest of so in love<\/em>, it\u2019s still Olivia Rodrigo, but a little more vibrant.\u00a0<\/p>\n