So, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love dropped last night. I have no words for this album, but I will still be going on a long rant about it lmao. This album is phenomenal; it’s probably my favorite album that she’s released, and I loved all that Olivia did before this album released to showcase it off: giving us drop dead, the cure, begged, and what’s wrong with me before the album release date in studio and/or live versions. All of her advertising really paid off, and tens of millions of people had pre-saved the album and were eager for it’s release, me included.
In this album, Olivia dropped the signature purple theme she had going in her first two albums: SOUR and GUTS. She showcased this by painting a large wall in LA purple, and gradually changing it to a light pink color, and writing the name of her new album on it. When she painted this wall and made it known it was her who had did it, it put her entire fanbase on their toes about what she could be doing, and made her new album really became a large internet craze before it was even announced.
After announcing the name of the album, she also changed her website to correspond with it, along with pre-releasing merch for you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. Personally, I attempted to get my hands on the signed cd for $17 when it dropped, but I was at work and wasn’t able to, so I just bought the regular cd. She did restock the signed ones 2 months later, and I might have bought that one as well, but that’s neither here nor there. She also came out with many vinyls and clothing items, and set them all for presale to be shipped June 12th. She ended up shipping my orders at around 12:30am the morning of release, which was very cool as I was still listening through the album as my order went through.
https://store.oliviarodrigo.com
She officially released two singles leading up to this album: drop dead, and the cure. I absolutely love these two singles, and I completely agree with her choice to make these two the ones she dropped early. I love these two songs, and they really showcase the two “halves” of her album that she elaborates on when she released the tracklist. The cure is probably my favorite out of the whole album, although a few come close, and it might even be my favorite out of her entire discography. The vinyl for the cure also includes an unreleased song called never do, which Olivia said was written too late to make it on the official album, but i’m hoping that it will make it on to the deluxe if that comes out next year.
She later revealed two other songs on her album; begged and what’s wrong with me, featuring Robert Smith from The Cure (the rock band, not the song.) These songs were performed live at different venues; begged at Olivia’s SNL studio, and what’s wrong with me at the Primavera Sound music festival in Barcelona, but the studio versions weren’t officially released until the album was as well.
The rest of her album was phenomenal; listening through it, I was genuinely shocked at how good some of these songs sounded. There was not one song in this album I would skip, and I added every single one to at least one of my playlists. You could really see how the album shifted from the “girl so in love” side to the “you seem pretty sad” one, and even then there were still highs and lows in each song.
drop dead: 9/10 – drop dead is the first song on the album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. This song was also the first single to be dropped by Olivia, and it’s one of my favorite songs coming from the album. I stayed up for the release of this one at midnight like I did with the album, although I did not get to do that for the drop of the cure, lmao. Anyways, I really love this song; its very pop-rock, leaning a little more pop, and she also has some dream-pop or dream-punk elements in there. It’s very fun to listen to, and I can tell Olivia had a blast making and producing it. She mentions a song by The Cure; a rock band Olivia takes a lot of inspiration from and has collaborated with before, along with her mentioning the Palace of Versailles. This mention is more significant when you watch the music video Olivia released with this album, which is recorded in the real palace.
stupid song: 9.5/10 – omg I love this song. stupid song is such a good song, and I feel like I elevated the first time I heard it. I just watched the music video while researching for this post, and I cannot tell you how much I love it. She includes clips from cameras on cats, dances with ballerinas in New York City, and so much more. The whole vibe of this song feels so magical almost, and its also just so fun to listen to. She’s also singing about something so happy while still keeping the bittersweet tone of the album persistent. There are many upbeat parts of this song, and the whole thing is like a synth-pop-rock blend with a really good bridge.
honeybee: 9/10 – honeybee is a really beautiful song, and I love how it sounds so much. It’s driven by the piano, and the vocals are so soft throughout the whole song and that really adds to the ethereal-type vibe she has going on. It definitely shows off the “girl so in love” aspect of the album, focusing heavily on romance and her relationship with Louis Partridge. It’s a very sweet song, and even with the issues in their relationship that would follow this song (i’m guessing this was written before then,) it’s still an amazing song, and I’m so glad she decided to organize the album this way so that we still get all of these songs. I feel like this song is hard to put into a specific genre, as are most songs, but I would say it’s closest to a folk-pop or just an indie-pop if I were to characterize it.
maggots for brains: 8.5/10 – I really like maggots for brains. It’s a really fun and upbeat song, which makes a distinct contrast with the lyrics she includes. She talks about being a “zombie in her body,” a “train off of the track,” a “sad shell of a woman, ” etc, while keeping it a bubblegum-techno upbeat pop song. This song is the first one to really show the cracks in Olivia’s relationship, and the flaws in her psyche. She talks about when Louis “goes away,” and how she wishes for tragedy just to make him come back. It’s really easy to miss what she’s saying with this super happy jolly song, it even took me like three listens to fully listen, but when you do it’s a really telling song that is actually really important for the story this album is trying to tell.
u + me = <3: 8.5/10 – I love u + me = <3! It’s a really upbeat song, and the lyrics mostly match up with that vibe, unlike the previous song, which is weird knowing that it comes after maggots for brains. I feel like this is more like a generic love song, similar to drop dead or honeybee, and I really like those types of songs. I do love sad songs, but its also fun to just listen to a song and have a good time. u + me = <3 is also a really fun name for a song, and I love how she went with that. This song is like Olivia looking on the brighter side of things compared to her last song, and it feels like a break from the more bittersweet songs we’ve been getting.
my way: 9.25/10 – I really love my way. It feels like a 2000s revenge dance-punk song, and also keeps the pop-rock she has carried throughout all three albums. It’s one of my favorites of the album, and has a completely different vibe to it compared to the rest of the album. I have no idea who she’s targeting this song towards, but they must have done something wrong since Olivia is putting her heart into this song. It’s a very upbeat song, and I just love how she plays with the vocals and instrumentals in the song.
purple: 7.5/10 – I like the song purple. There aren’t any especially fast or loud parts of this song, and it stays mostly in the same key, but it still a good song that adds a lot to the album. It talks about how she used to feel like a tourist in Louis’ hometown, and how now she feels at home there with his family. She goes on and talks about how together they make purple, and overall it’s a very nice love song. She does talk about arguing like a “real couple,” which is a little concerning, but it doesn’t really sink the mood of the song. Overall, purple is a pretty good song that’s a good addition to the album.
the cure: 9.5/10 – I love the song the cure so much. It was the second single released by Olivia for you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, and the whole feeling and vibe of the song works so well to show to meaning of the song. She’s pretty direct with the tone; “my head is full of poison and my heart is full of doubt,” along with other lyrics, and she talks about how no matter how good her relationship is with Louis, it will never be the “cure,” or the solution to what’s wrong with her. She uses a lot of alternative rock and some pop-rock in this song, and it combines into this grunge-type intro morphing into a really beautiful song all together. The message conveyed with this song is also really important for the story of this album, with Olivia realizing no matter how much she loves Louis it will never fix her, and what she really needs to do is focus on herself. Songs don’t ever end on a different note than the one they started on, however, and so Olivia ends the song without ever finding the cure.
begged: 8.75/10 – I really like this song. Olivia played this song on SNL the night she was hosting in may, and ever since I have been really excited to hear the studio version, and it doesn’t sound much different at all. After the cure, this song is really introducing the “you seem pretty sad” half of the song, and the lyrics really give us perspective on their relationship, and how it’s falling apart. Olivia is singing about how she had to beg to get “it,” most likely symbolizing affection or even just attention. She doesn’t feel secure in her relationship, and that is the one most important aspect of one. It also gives us an interesting perspective on my way, which is most likely about another girl who was pursuing Louis. Although the vibe of my way is distinctly sharp and hostile, and the dance-punk genre doesn’t really garner much sympathy or sadness, the fact that Olivia had to write a song about a girl Louis got close to during their relationship is not helping their relationship in any way, and is definitely adding to the destabilization of their relationship.
what’s wrong with me: 8.5/10(?) – I really like this song! I love how Olivia collaborated with Robert Smith to make this, especially because of how much Olivia is a fan of him and The Cure. When the live version of this came out from the Primavera Studios in Barcelona I was obsessed with this song. I love the lyrics, and the blending of both of their voices is surprisingly really good live. The only reason I rated this song an 8.5 is because of the audio on the studio version of this song. I haven’t heard anybody else talking about this, but the song almost feels like it was slowed down, or the pitch was messed with or something. It’s probably just a creative choice made by Olivia, and I still really like the song, but I hope a live version of it gets released on Spotify so I could listen to their real voices.
less: 9.5/10 – I love this song so much. The lyrics are devastating, showing the avoidance Louis shows Olivia when she’s breaking down, and how their relationship doesn’t feel how it used to no matter what they try to do. The whole song goes on to show flaws in their relationship with piano playing in the background and beautiful vocals by Olivia, creating a truly melancholic feeling to the song. I love how honest she is being in this album, and how she is really putting her true emotions into it. There aren’t nearly as many voice effects or audio layering in this song like she puts in her other ones, but the quiet parts of this song actually really add to the feeling she’s trying to convey. I know it probably sounds stupid, but I love the way some of the rhyming in this song sounds; the lines just sound right in my mind, i don’t really know how to describe it.
expectations: 9/10 – I love this song! It’s unexpectedly upbeat, especially for going right after less and being the second-to-last song on you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. This song has such a different feeling to most of the other songs on this playlist, being most similar to my waybut just with a different vibe. Instead of being angry, she is very upbeat and confident, describing her relationship with Louis in a really detached manner. She frames herself as carefree and uninterested in Louis in the beginning; saying he wasn’t smart or funny, and waiting to get secure to ask for more. It’s a lot different than the way she used to frame her relationship in her songs; very sweet and romantic, focusing on the relationship instead of just the material value. I honestly love this perspective on her relationship, especially with the way Olivia said he treated her in the previous songs of this album. She goes on about having big expectations in a very techno-pop-rock bridge, and the song as a whole has a large dance-pop vibe.
cigarette smoke: 9.25/10 – I absolutely love cigarette smoke. It’s a phenomenal final song to this album, and it really concludes the story Olivia is trying to tell to us. She directly tells us how their relationship is over, how she regrets how long she stayed, and she asks Louis to give her back the time she wasted loving him. She goes on to talk to Louis and tells him to tell her something honestly so that her memories of him will darken with their relationship. She even calls him “honeybee” in this song, and says something about him taking “her” side, referring to another woman. All of this just goes together to show how Olivia and Louis’ relationship fell apart, and helps to put an ending to this, indeed, very varied album.
