Review Summary: The incredibly satisfying sound of potential being fully realized.
Olivia Rodrigo has been brimming with untapped potential since the release of her debut album. Her tendency to utilize influences from rock-adjacent genres has always set her apart from her peers, yet she was still prone to committing some of the same common faults you typically see in mainstream pop, such as overly simplistic lyricism and inconsistent album pacing. Be that as it may,
Sour was an exciting, extremely memorable debut, and
Guts saw Rodrigo hone her talents in nearly every way; yet there was still a feeling that she was capable of even more. I believed that Rodrigo was capable of producing a masterpiece if she could sharpen her songwriting talents and become a touch more consistent, but I could’ve never prepared myself for how much
You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love would knock me off my feet. The album does a wonderful job marrying Rodrigo’s songwriting talent with the emotional maturity and consistency that her past work often lacked. It begins with stories of love and hope, and as it progresses, the lyrical themes get darker and heavier in a seamless, natural way, giving the album a sense of cohesion that elevates it from simply being a collection of songs. On top of this, the album is simply a ton of fun from start to finish, and it’s one you’ll immediately want to replay once it's over.
You Seem Pretty Sad… may not officially be a concept album, but in many ways it’s similar to one. It’s a tale of two halves: the first half of the record features recurring themes of infatuation, optimism, and joy. Rodrigo confesses her love on tracks like
Stupid Song and
U + Me, yet neither song (or any other on the album) feels stale or tired.
Maggots For Brains is another first-half standout with its incredibly catchy chorus and playfully self-deprecating lyrics. Rodrigo has always heavily featured ballads on her albums, which is something I used to fault her for. In the past, her ballads felt too cheesy and overdone, but
You Seem Pretty Sad… bats a perfect 1.000 with its slow songs.
Honeybee and
Purple are the album’s two (relatively) uplifting ballads, and both feature touching, poetic songwriting and dynamic vocal performances. What sets these songs apart from her past ballads is the increased maturity in the lyrics; no longer do these tracks feel like they were written from excerpts of a teenage girl’s diary – they feel nuanced and sophisticated. Also, not a single one of the album’s 13 songs feels too formulaic; each one has its own unique blend of stylistic influences and Rodrigo consistently keeps the listener on their toes. For example, the aforementioned
Stupid Song begins sounding like a run-of-the-mill soft piano song before ramping up its energy and transforming into a remarkable, mid-tempo pop banger. Fans of her punkier side will be pleased as well thanks to songs like
My Way and
U + Me, which both take obvious cues from 2000’s era pop rock artists like Avril Lavigne without feeling like cheap knock offs.
The second half of
You Seem Pretty Sad… sees Rodrigo take a more somber and heartbroken approach to her songwriting, beginning with
The Cure: a touching track that has a beautiful bridge and goosebump-inducing, climactic ending. She pours her heart out on songs like
Begged and
Less, both of which feature some of the best vocal performances of her career.
Begged in particular has an absolutely gorgeous chorus with immaculately produced, layered vocals.
You Seem Pretty Sad… peaks with
What’s Wrong With Me: a showstopping duet featuring The Cure’s Robert Smith. Its lyrical themes of heartbreak and mental illness are heavy and moving, and it’ll more than likely find a way to get stuck in your head too. A collaboration between Smith and Rodrigo is one I would’ve likely never thought of myself, but their unique vocal deliveries play off of one another in an immensely satisfying way. Thankfully the second half of the album isn’t all doom and gloom, and that’s largely thanks to
Expectations, which has an infectious synth melody and is an incredibly welcome change of pace after one of the album’s most devastating tracks (
Less).
You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love is a masterfully crafted emotional rollercoaster that absolutely shouldn’t be overlooked, whether you’re a fan of pop or not. Hell, even if you’re not, this could very well be the album that converts you. While the lyrical themes are nothing new for the genre, the songwriting reaches a level of perfection and depth rarely achieved by her pop contemporaries. Olivia Rodrigo has finally reached the potential I always knew she had, and even further exceeded it in many ways.
You Seem Pretty Sad… will go down as one of the decade’s finest albums, and it sits comfortably among the ranks of other modern pop classics.
5 out of 5
