It’s tempting to focus on the peripheral aspects of Olivia Rodrigo’s career, dissecting who a particular song is about in relation to her personal life. However where Taylor Swift, an early source of inspiration for Rodrigo, overtly ties her music to her feuds and relationships, causing them to bleed into each other, Rodrigo has seemed keen to maintain a degree of separation between art and life. This means that even though you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love is widely believed to be about Rodrigo’s British actor ex Louis Partridge, the album doesn’t feel preoccupied with minutiae of this one specific relationship in a way intended to create tabloid fodder. Which leaves it much easier to focus on the music and writing, and the question of whether it’s actually any good.
In short: it is. On her third album Rodrigo has crafted a lush pop record with new wave tinges detailing a relationship slowly falling apart. The first half is full of luscious tales of the early stages of a relationship. The songs are warm, full of light guitar, swelling vocals and witty lyrics and yet even here there’s a fear the relationship is off kilter. On “u + me= <3” there is a hope that “I know everybody changes, but I hope that we don't”. “my way”, a return to the pop-punk sensibilities Rodrigo explored on GUTS, details her frustration with a romantic rival who can’t take the hint, causing Rodrigo to proclaim “that’s it, I win” in a way that manages to balance pettiness and sarcasm.
On “the cure”, the cracks rise to the surface and Rodrigo shifts into series of heartbreaking depictions of the collapsing relationship. The backing shifts into sparse pianos and layered background vocals that just buoy up the desperation that seeps into the lyrics. “less” charts the final stages of the relationship, where “We tried to recreate our favourite date / But we didn't laugh much this time” in a futile attempt to salvage the relationship that is ultimately beyond saving. The final quarter of the album is wrestling with the aftermath, trying to build a brittle exterior before “the memories turn dark” and it all falls away.
Overall, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love is an emotionally mature, intricately plotted album that is able to articulate the rise and falls of this relationship in a way that establishes that Rodrigo as a true staying force within pop music, able to balance universal themes of love and heartbreak with just enough little specificities to allow the album to truly thrive.
Listen to "stupid song":
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