Now this might be me fangirling but something must be said about this album or I'll literally explode.
You know that surreal feeling where you love all the songs on an album, where all the songs on an album hits you in different places, exactly!!!!, Olivia Rodrigo did that for me and not a lot of artist or albums have been able to do that. Love they say sweeps you off your feet, and I found love in 2021, when Olivia dropped "Sour" album, I loved that album, every single song, I still do, and till this day I strongly believe Olivia was singing about me in that album (but that is a story for another day). At some point I stopped listening to Olivia for a while, explored other artists, but I revisited "Sour" our album, and God, I wonder why I ever stopped, I wanted to see what she was up to and voilà I met this album.
There's something about this album "You Seem Pretty Sad For a Girl so in Love", released June, 2026 by Olivia Rodrigo ofc. Let me start you off with the title, the title definitely stands out and to be honest it was the first thing that intrigued me and that was big for me because normally I'm very skeptical trying new things, I rarely listen to new songs (coming from a girl who still listens to the same songs, since she was twelve). The title made my heart tingle with a warm kind of sadness and also have a sense of ironic element to it, because a girl so in love should be happy right, that's what love does, it makes you happy, but this album present a sad girl, ironic right. The title doesn't present love as this beautiful cure that makes everything all right, but presents it as something that could cause anxiety right alongside affection, excitement and devotion because everything is all falling apart even though you are still in love.
The songs in the album alternate between the girl in love and the girl that is sad, songs like "drop dead", "stupid song", "honey bee", "purple", "u+me=<3—(you plus me equals our hearts forever)” depicts the love aspect while songs like "what's wrong with me", "my way", "begged", "less", "expectations", "the cure", "maggots for brains", shows the sad part of it all, with lyrics such as "I want you more than any stupid song could ever say", "Nobody's wanted somebody more", "but kiss me and I might drop dead", "I love you more a million times",against lyrics like "I think you're what's wrong with me", "I wish, I wish, I wish you loved me less", it just sounds heartbreakingly poetic.
The beginning of this album is characterised by a girl intoxicated with love, as we start out with "drop dead", "stupid song" and "honeybee" and it slowly goes from that happy, almost foolish kind of love to something sadder. And I think what makes this album more sad and ironic is that even in the songs in the album that expresses this happy, silly love carries a hint of anxiety and desperation, and what I love is the fact that, there is no clear cut of happy songs and sad songs, they both spill into each other. The songs depicting the girl in love, portrays a girl who is not just hopelessly but desperately in love and want to be loved, so much so that it consumes her, and it just breaks your heart to see someone spiral so bad just to be in love, that loving someone so much can a push one into a depressive state that it starts to manifest as physical pain. Like this one line from the song "what's wrong with me"—"My head is spinning and my stomach is sick, say I'm in love, so it's hard to admit". She knows she's in love but she can't admit that she is because she knows that this is not what love is meant to feel like. It shows how much love could take from you if it's not healthy, not balanced.
The thing I love about Olivia Rodrigo and music in general is the sound (the melody). Olivia's sound is versatile, one minute you are thinking about life, love and everything in between, then you are on the bathroom floor crying your eyes out, but suddenly you are dancing in front of the mirror like a white girl who just got kissed by her crush. The sound in this album, just the same effect. The album sometimes has this dreamlike, sad and calm vibe, just like you are in a romance movie with with contrasting sounds like pop, punk, and alternative rock that makes you want to dance while screaming the lyrics on the top of your voice. Also her lyrics is why I love everyone of her songs so much, it's heavily poetic, like you are reading right from her diary or something, it's not polish or mainstream, it raw and so relatable like she's singing thought straight out of your head.
I know a review should come with a critique but in all, I love everything about this album, from the theme of heartbreak, to the ironic and clever title, to the irony of love making someone happy, to the shift from rock to a romantic, dreamlike vibe, to the lyrics that makes your heart break all over again as you watch a girl spill herself desperately for love, everything just adds up making an album absolutely relatable for people who are in love yet feel so unloved.
Signed Abeegail
A livie
The images are sourced
Thank you for Reading ☺️💗