Olivia Rodrigo - "you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love" Album Review

If you, like me, are a millennial or older who is trying to be Hip With The Kids On TikTok, you may have noticed over the past few years a deep reverence for older musical artists taking flight. At least on my FYP, I'm just as likely to see Gen Z-ers gushing about the likes of Jeff Buckley or Alice in Chains as I am Doja Cat or Taylor Swift. There's a nostalgia for by-gone aesthetic trends they barely lived to see, too, from Y2K to Tuscan interior design and more. I chalk this up, like pretty much everything happening culturally in 2026, to the digital age: young people yearn for a time where style was more personalized, rather than curated by an algorithm trying to maximize views, likes, and revenue. There was a sense of authenticity and genuine creativity that can often get lost as today's acceleratingly-corporatist America seems more interested in following a formula than developing something new. There's also, of course, the oft-discussed fact that smartphones and social media have in many ways isolated us from those nearby, weakening our sense for real human connection and forging an increasingly-lonely society.

Ever since her mainstream breakout at the age of 17 with "drivers license," Olivia Rodrigo has been Gen Z's biggest figure in the pop music landscape. Fittingly, her music captures her generation's penchant for looking backwards culturally and pulling those influences to the modern day. 2021's SOUR and 2023's GUTS both found their musical footing in 2000's pop rock, influenced by and compared to the likes of Paramore, Avril Lavigne, and Lily Allen. However, Rodrigo has always managed to combine those older sounds with a current perspective - she writes of romance in ways best understood by those who grew up in a world of dating apps and Instagram DM's.

For her third album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, Rodrigo has retained that current lyrical point-of-view, but musically she's turned the clock back even further - trading her iPod for a Walkman, the sk8r bois for the goth kids. Most obvious is the album's three nods to legendary alternative outfit The Cure: lead single and album opener "drop dead" references their 1987 hit "Just Like Heaven"; second single "the cure" is, of course, the name of the band (and was released on World Goth Day); and singer Robert Smith hops on "what's wrong with me" to become the first featured artist across Rodrigo's three albums to date. Rodrigo and main collaborator Dan Nigro branch further into 80s post-punk and college rock flavors on "maggots for brains" - which sports a New Order-esque guitar riff - and "purple," which is built around a repeated lyric of "melt with you," calling back to Modern English's signature 1982 track.  Even structurally, you seem pretty sad bucks streaming-era trends; the album is fifty minutes long, no song is under three minutes, "the cure" is five minutes long with no single edit made available, and closer "cigarette smoke" nearly reaches six minutes.

All that said, the narrative Rodrigo spins across you seem pretty sad is undeniably youthful. Split into two halves - appropriately, "girl so in love" and "you seem pretty sad" - it details the full arch of a relationship from internet crush to wishing she could forget. "drop dead" opens with Rodrigo "stalking" her love interest on social media and testing their astrological compatibility. "u + me = <3" bears a text-lingo title, and "my way" sees Rodrigo calling out another woman for "posting another pic in clothes that I know are his." Across the first seven tracks that make up the "girl so in love" half, she's completely smitten. 

Things change drastically on "the cure," the first track of the "you seem pretty sad" section and the album's emotional center. Surrounded by strummy acoustic guitars building to a string-laden cathartic finale, Rodrigo details how this relationship has uncovered her wounds (which, on "honeybee" earlier, she had claimed were healed). "I thought I found the antidote with you / But my head is full of poison, and my heart is full of doubts," she cries out. Her conclusion? "It don't matter how your love feels anymore / it'll never be the cure." The repeated refrain of "I'm unraveled" really tells the whole story. Compared by many to "Tonight, Tonight" by Smashing Pumpkins, "the cure" crystalizes everything Rodrigo's music has represented across her three albums, and in this humble blogger's opinion, has quickly becoming the crowning jewel of her discography.

From there, the relationship is in tatters. A brutal three-song stretch of "begged," "what's wrong with me," and "less" sees Rodrigo broken and despondent. The quiet restraint of "begged" still cuts deep with its chorus' closing statement: "nothing's quite enough when I know that to get it I begged." Robert Smith is a welcome guest on "what's wrong with me," though it is funny to hear him sing a verse that, while emotional, was clearly originally written with the 23-year-old Rodrigo in mind rather than a 67-year-old who's been married since 1988. Throughout this second suite, only "expectations" feels more like a spunky "fuck off" than a bitter "fuck you." It's the most self-reflective and downtrodden we've ever seen Rodrigo; rather than "onto the next one," this time it feels like she's tired of trying. The final moments of the album have her wishing the memories could "go dark."

With how emotional you seem pretty sad is, it's remarkable how catchy Rodrigo & co have made the album. The bright-eyed "drop dead" and the confessional "the cure" have both been stuck in my head since the singles dropped. "maggots for brains" has a delightfully bright chorus, and "expectations" is still fun despite coming in the album's latter, darker half. Rodrigo's voice is as compelling as ever, from the tongue-in-cheek spoken-word verse of "drop dead" to the delicate balladry of "honeybee."

There's more cooks in the kitchen helping this time, too; while GUTS was almost exclusively written by Rodrigo and Nigro, you seem pretty sad credits a number of songwriters. Steph Jones joins the fold for the first time on "my way," having worked previously on two of the decade's greatest pop hits in JADE's "Angel of My Dreams" and Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso," Amy Allen, who did contribute to GUTS-era numbers "pretty isn't pretty" and "scared of my guitar" (as well as also working on "Espresso"), appears on five different tracks. Sasha Alex Sloan, known for working with Charli XCX on sister tracks "Track 10" and "Blame It On Your Love," shows up on "what's wrong with me." And rising producer Jim-E Stack, fresh off producing Lorde's Virgin, co-produced "purple," and his flourishes are noticeable.

Speaking of Lorde - there's a through line connecting her sophomore effort Melodrama to you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. Much like Rodrigo, Lorde broke out in her teens with a pop record that eschewed what was stylistically popular at the time. She then returned with Melodrama, a matured tale of progressive heartbreak assembled with a key collaborator in Jack Antonoff. It became a flagship breakup record for younger Millennials; time will tell if you seem pretty sad can be the same for Gen Z a decade later. One thing is for certain, though: three albums in, Olivia Rodrigo keeps getting better, and continues to build her legacy as the voice of a generation.

Deep Cuts - Nelly Furtado, "Wait For You"

 

Nelly Furtado's Loose was a transformation. Teaming up with renowned producer Timbaland for her third album brought a newfound energy, teleporting her from the coffeehouse to the club. "Promiscuous" had a beat as sexed-up as its lyrics, and "Say It Right" holds up today as one of the 2000's slinkiest, catchiest hits. This album went platinum in the US, three of its songs have over a billion streams on Spotify (the aforementioned two plus "Maneater"), and had a whopping eight singles - and somehow, none of them were the absolutely brilliant "Wait For You." Which makes it the perfect candidate for the latest entry in the Deep Cuts series!

"Wait For You" is written by the same team of Furtado, Timbaland, and Danja that worked together on practically every song on Loose. Despite not being a single, clearly somebody had faith in the song - digital re-releases feature a "Wait For You Interlude" that consists of studio cross-talk between Furtado and Timbaland wherein the former calls the beat "wicked." 

And she's right! "Wait For You" combines hip-hop percussion with Turkish folk music, with most of the song built around a sharp riff played on the bağlama, sampled from Muhlis Akarsu's "Allah Allah Delsem Gesem." I've mentioned before that a good rhythm section can function as a hook on all its own for me, and that's certainly the case here. Timbaland's drum beat here frequently leaves its normal groove and locks into an intense snare-kick drum combo, creating a bunch of mini crescendos throughout the song. Plucky strings add some sass along the way. Furtado rides this beat through both the verse and the chorus, it only relenting near the end when it switches from the drum machine to hand drums.

Lyrically, "Wait For You" is a straightforward tale of dedication to one's love. "I'll wait for you until the heavens fall / I'll wait for you until the end of the world." Dramatic? Sure! Obsessive? Quite possibly - especially since the lyrics don't make clear if this is an existing love or an unrequited one. But Furtado sells the hell out of it. By the time she delivers the earworm-y "'Cause right now feels just like a movie" at the end of the chorus, you're all in.

Because I am truly a freak for drum beats, I probably love this song more than most - but I do still find it fairly astounding that with two-thirds of the main tracklist of Loose receiving the single treatment, "Wait For You" was never one of them. Despite that, it's always one of the first songs from Furtado that I'll jump to.

Deep Cuts - The Blue Nile, "From a Late Night Train"

 

Has a song ever sounded this lonely?

I recently watched Chungking Express for the first time, Wong Kar-Wai's 1994 classic. Ostensibly, the film tells two loosely-connected stories of people falling in love in the aftermath of heartbreak. However, I think this description misses the mark a bit. My takeaway from Chungking Express was not that its four protagonists found deep love connections; rather, I saw it as extremely lonely people choosing to be lonely together. (That may sound paradoxical but hey! It's the emotion the movie left me with.) 

Upon finishing the film, I was compelled to throw on The Blue Nile's seminal 1989 album Hats. I can't quite explain the connection my brain made between the film and this record: perhaps it was the rain slickened concrete streets of Hong Kong on which the film takes place; perhaps it was the lingering mood of the darkly-dreamy score; perhaps it was simply that the title Chungking Express resembles the name of a train and reminded me of the track which this post centers around. I suspect those familiar with both Chungking Express and Hats will be able to draw the same subliminal connection between them as I did.

Hats has had somewhat of a resurgence as of late, becoming a cornerstone example amongst internet music nerd circles of a "sophisti-pop" record should sound like, alongside the ever-beloved Sade. Perhaps more wide-reaching, though, was when Taylor Swift referenced lead single "The Downtown Lights" on her 2024 album The Tortured Poets Department. A co-sign from the world's biggest pop-star was sure to garner extra attention towards what was already the album's most well-known hit.

With Hats, however, I've always had a different favorite track: "From a Late Night Train." The shortest song on the album at four minutes, "From a Late Night Train" strips away much of the lushness found elsewhere on Hats and leaves singer Paul Buchanan nearly alone as a dejected narrator. The song title itself is evocative, conjuring up images of a mostly-empty, slow moving train, with Buchanan sitting solitary in a dim corner, probably half-drunk, talking to nobody in particular. He sings of a relationship fallen by the wayside, accompanied only by looming synth ambience and a few stray instruments. Wilted horns are the city commiserating with Buchanan as he rolls on by; a piano barely manages to stagger through the song. Buchanan's delivery is of a broken man, as he barely mumbles out the song's refrain, "It's over now / I know it's over." He's not up on a pedestal, declaring his heartbreak with big notes and loud emotions. He mostly just seems so fucking tired.

I can see why "The Downtown Lights" is the flagship song off Hats. It's shimmering, it's illustratory, and it's got a magical chorus. It's also where Buchanan's vocals are more audibly expressive, with the way he's almost screaming by the end of the song. And don't get me wrong, I think it's an absolutely phenomenal piece of pop music. But for me, "From a Late Night Train" has the edge. It's one of those songs that delivers profound emotion by being so quiet; the lonely malaise found here may be more subtle, but in many ways I find it more powerful.

In Chungking Express, several songs appear multiple times, famously including "California Dreams" by The Mamas & the Papas and film star Faye Wong's own cover of The Cranberries' smash "Dreams." In the first of the film's two segments, there's a lesser-known reggae song that recurs - Dennis Brown's "Things In Life." The song's chorus seems to be encouraging the film's recently-dumped characters to get over their lovelorn ways: "It's not everyday we're gonna be the same way / There must be a change somehow / There are bad times, and good times too / So have a little faith in what you do." Though of course not included in the film, "From a Late Night Train" seems to include the response of both male protagonists: "But I can't let go." Perhaps that was the latent connection my brain was making after all.

Grammys Preview & Predictions

Tonight, the 56th annual Grammy awards will be held to look at back at the best in music of 2013. Or, to be more accurate, the best in music from October 2012 through September 2013, due to the September 30th cutoff date for albums to be considered for nomination. This stipulation means that some of the year's most celebrated releases, including Lorde's Heroine and Arcade Fire's Reflektor, won't be eligible until next year's Grammys. This is a pretty big flaw in a system that's already struggling, judging by the confusing nature of and general displeasure with what's been nominated. Today, I will be using the less-than-revolutionary format of "what will win" vs. "what should win" (with an added twist of "who wasn't nominated) to look at how several major categories may pan out this evening. Then, I'll be talking about performances and other parts of the show to look forward to. A list of all nominees & performers can be found here.Without further delay, here's this year's Grammy awards preview.

Album of the Year
The Blessed Unrest - Sara Bareilles
Good Kid, M.A.A.D City - Kendrick Lamar
The Heist - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Random Access Memories - Daft Punk
Red - Taylor Swift
Who should win:
Daft Punk's album was great. A cool fusion of dance, disco, electronic, funk, and pop, it produced some of the year's best singles in "Doin' It Right," "Lose Yourself to Dance," and of course the inescapable "Get Lucky." "Instant Crush" featured Strokes singer Julian Casablancas on vocals and rode a tasty groove, and "Contact" closed out the record in an epic, fiery blaze. Of these five, Daft Punk's album was the most enjoyable. I wouldn't mind if Kendrick won either; it was one of the best-received rap albums of this Grammy cycle, and it'd be nice for the Grammy awards to finally give a hip-hop artist Album of the Year honors for the first time since Outkast won in 2004 for Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.
Who will win:
Neither of those two. The Grammys are notorious for playing it safe in this category, as evidenced by past victories by  Herbie Hancock, Eric Clapton, and Christopher Cross over the likes of Kanye West, Amy Winehouse, U2, and Pink Floyd. Macklemore will probably take this, as the voters will think they're giving a hip-hop album some recognition when really The Heist is mostly full of pop songs. Swift has a chance, but I think the amount of time that's passed since the actual release of her record (October 22, 2012) will hurt her cause. If Bareilles wins, it'd shock everyone, as nobody expected her to be nominated at all.
Who wasn't nominated:
My favorite album of 2013, Reflektor, didn't come out in time to be considered for AotY honors. I honestly wouldn't have expected it to be nominated either, though their win for The Suburbs maybe left the door open for a repeat. One record I honestly expected to see, however, was Modern Vampires of the City. That album was superb; it was also pretty universal, as I have trouble imagining anybody who wouldn't be entertained by this record. I even though it had a shot at winning, but unfortunately its not an option. I also think Kanye's Yeezus should be nominated, if not for its merit as a unique rap album then simply for its boldness.

Downfall of Divas: Lady Gaga & Katy Perry New Singles Reviews

(Editor's note: this is not this week's "Song of the Week" feature; expect that in a day or two)

Today saw the release of singles from arguably two of the three biggest pop stars in the world; Katy Perry and Lady Gaga (Beyonce being the third). What's this, you say? Why post about these two artists on a blog primarily focused on alt/indie rock? Well, a couple of reasons: first of all, there's no denying these two have huge cultural impact, and that you'll be hearing these tracks non-stop as terrestrial radio will play them relentlessly; secondly, both are at least respectable artists, as neither of them make particularly bad music, at least not compared to other top 40 artists (*cough* LMFAO *cough*); and lastly, because both of the new singles are considerably worse than each of their respective previous releases.

Let's start with Gaga, who, while I'm not a pop fan by any means, has earned my respect as a music fan due to the messages she relays through her music. The ideas of being yourself, being unique and creative, and not caring what others think are all woefully ignored by the vast majority of top 40 "artists," who continuously perform songs with the same, over-abused, blatantly simple stories behind them. Also, I'm pretty sure she at least writes a good portion of what she performs, unlike her chart-topping counterparts. (Which, by some blissful miracle, now includes Queens of the Stone Age, whose new album ...Like Clockwork reached the #1 spot on Billboard's album chart earlier this year). Finally, there's no denying that "Bad Romance" is an pretty darn catchy tune. I've always felt that if all pop music sounded like Gaga's songs, maybe radio music would be half-bearable.

But today, the meat-dress-donning diva debuted her newest single, "Applause." Unfortunately, Gaga seems to have lost her artistic sense, as the track winds up being nothing more than something you could've found on a Cascada album or any other Europop/dance club hit from the past ten years. A big part of what made Lady Gaga somewhat decent is (or was) her originality, and this track lacks any uniqueness to it. Generic lyrics such as "now put your hands up" are littered across the song, and repeated several times. If some no-name singer had recorded this it wouldn't even chart, led alone shoot straight to #1 as you can expect it to this coming week on Billboard and iTunes alike as respectably devoted fans will ignore the song's shortcomings and love it "because it's Gaga." If you've ever read iTunes fan reviews of album pre-orders before they're released, you'll know that most of them say something along the lines of "'X' is the best singer ever and I just know this CD's going to be amazing!!!1!!" Sadly, if "Applause" is any indication, Lady Gaga's new upcoming album ARTPOP will be anything but amazing.

Katy Perry is another somewhat inoffensive pop star: her songs are usually low-key, her videos are fun and creative, and "I Kissed a Girl" had a sort of endearing "I don't care what you think of me" attitude much like Gaga possesses. Yet, also like Gaga, Perry put out her newest single today, titled "Roar," and it is disappointing as well. While the track does have some redeeming qualities, including Perry's above-average vocal performance and apparent lack of vocoder use (another reason I respect the pair). But the song's message not being taken advantage of in a relationship is worn-out, as all of Taylor Swift's last two albums will tell you. Also, there's nothing special about the song's composition; it sounds just like a good chunk of today's pop music. Although not as much of a let down to fans as Gaga's track should prove to be, I was hoping for something a little more interesting.

Just to be clear, it's a rare occasion I talk about artists like these two here, but since they've both got a pretty strong hold over the American public in terms of music culture, and since it's extremely uncommon for two high-profile artists to release singles on the same day, I felt it was appropriate.

Meanwhile, fellow punk groups Superchunk (via NPR) and No Age (also via NPR) each released their latest albums for stream today, and Washed Out's Paracosm comes out tomorrow. It's a great week for music fans, and it'll surely be a close race for Album of the Week on this blog.