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Olivia Rodrgio’s third full-length album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love is trying to do a lot of things. Fortunately for the 23-year-old songwriter, it achieves most of its aspirations quite well. The pop-punk stylings of her previous LPs, SOUR and GUTS, have been replaced with a blend of 1980s-worship and 2010s-balladry. Rodrigo’s attempt to balance these two sounds leads to mixed results, but it’s not a mistake that holds this album back from being her most impressive body of work to date.
On the 80’s gothic rock-pop and new-wave influence: although the era wasn’t one that Rodrigo was around to experience, it is instrumental to the texture of at least half of the new record’s tracks. Tracks like “drop dead” and “what’s wrong with me?” rest on a bed of fluffy-sounding synths. Hell, “what’s wrong with me” features The Cure’s Robert Smith (an inclusion that I thought was kind of unfitting at first, but is growing on me). She even does her best impression of Morten Harket’s “Take on Me” yelp in the closing moments of “maggots for brains”.
you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love is Rodrigo’s first attempt at making a conceptual, narrative-based album. On the surface, the record follows the standard beats that other contemporary breakup albums do (think Tyler, the Creator’s IGOR ). The album can be broken down into three distinct parts:
- Part 1: Girl falls in love
- Part 2: The relationship starts crumbling
- Part 3: The aftermath of the relationship
The opening track, and lead single, “drop dead” opens the narrative; Rodrigo finds herself meeting a guy at a bar, and not unsimilar to Tears for Fears in ‘85, something happens and she’s head over heels. Instrumentally, “drop dead” follows a pretty standard pop-structure. Bubbly synths pulse to open the track, rhythmic pounding bass drums sweep us into the big finale, the whole 9.
The run of tracks that follows “drop dead” illustrate Rodrigo falling deeper into this relationship. “honeybee” is the first of multiple ballads on the album, reminiscent of slower hits from the late 00’s-early 10’s with sleepy pianos and string arrangements to match. I’m overall very impressed with Rogrido’s vocals on this album, but the tone she navigates on “honeybee” sounds really tinny and hollow to me. It’s not my favorite cut, but I get the appeal.
“maggots for brains” is a MAJOR highlight from this portion of the album. Melodically, it reminds me of a more fleshed out version of “love is embarrassing” from her previous record, GUTS. There’s so much happening in this song. There’s a slow and plucky break-beat, the pre-chorus rings out with this indie-sleaze, twangly guitar lick that reminds me of Surf Curse, there’s an acapella closer. It’s honestly miraculous that Rodrigo and her producer Daniel Nigro were able to make this song not just cohesive, but fun as hell. “maggots for brain” also deepens the album’s narrative, as it implies that Rodrigo is becoming completely codependent in this relationship. The chorus reads:
I’m a sad shell of a woman and I’ve got maggots for brains
But that’s just a thing that happens when my
When my baby goes away
Rodrigo dives into more relationship complexities on the following tracks “my way”, and “purple”, which leads into you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love’s turning point, “the cure”. This is my personal favorite track on the record. It’s a goosebump-inducing, heartbreaking jam that will live in karaoke bars for the rest of eternity. “the cure” follows Rodrigo as she realizes that the guy she loves cannot release her of her insecurities.
But my head is full of poison, and my heart is full of doubt
I got toxins in my bloodstream, you tried hard to suck ’em out
And it feels like medication, and it’s good for me, I’m sure
But it don’t matter how your love feels anymore
It’ll never be the cure
The rest of the album sees Rodrigo ending her relationship and coping with the loss. “begged” is my favorite of the ballads on you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love; it’s her best vocal performance, maybe ever. On these slower cuts, I feel like Rodrigo’s tone has always lined up better with acoustic guitar instrumentation than piano. At her best, she sings more like Sheryl Crow than Adele. “what’s wrong with me” and “less” are other highlights from the album’s closing moments.
I can’t help but miss the gruffer sound of the pop-girls in the 2000’s, and sometimes this record comes off as a little too over-processed and clean for my taste (like come on, if “u + me = <3” was a little bit more coarse it would fit on a Plumtree album or the But I’m a Cheerleader soundtrack). I also found myself getting tossed around a bit by the album’s sequencing. Going from “less” to “expectations” gives me so much whiplash, it should be a crime.
Despite my nitpicks, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love is Rodrigo’s most complete body of work to date. This record is the artistic evolution that I was hoping to hear going from SOUR to GUTS. I’m glad that she’s experimenting with narrative and with a different sound, and more than anything, I’m excited to see where she goes from here.
