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Since Olivia really came into her own on 2023’s ‘GUTS’, the bar has not only been set high, it’s practically created a makeshift skylight. Rodrigo’s heavy lean towards young love and heartbreak was given the rowdy urgency it needed on her breakout, and marked her down as a definitive threat for any other pop girl looking to squeeze into the big slot. Expectations (no pun intended) can create demand, so she can be forgiven if she was feeling the heat of needing to follow up with something more grand. While that doesn’t seem to have influenced Rodrigo in a stylistic sense, it’s certainly meant a narrowing of focus. Aside from your stray outlier, a majority of ‘girl so in love’ dives upside down into a pool of string-kissed pop tunes and feathery-light piano ballads. Depending on where you sit, this could either be a fantastic or an underwhelming outcome. For me, she writes ‘em so well, it’s impossible for me to dislike it.
In fact, upon return listens, I’ve found myself involuntarily whisked away by Olivia’s lovesickness. On tracks like “stupid song” and “honeybee”, I was initially left asking for a tad extra on the songwriting front. Rodrigo has a very noticeable comfort zone, both melodically and lyrically, that crops up especially in the verse sections of these two cuts. The way that the former’s chorus resolves feels like it’s been done at least a dozen times in her discography, so it was an immediate instinct to reject it on that basis. Any qualms with the lack of originality were shoved to the side when I sat down with them again. Now, it was the overwhelming sentiment embedded in these tracks’ DNA that flipped my feelings on their head. The ascending desperation of “stupid song” puts me in a vice grip. I agree with her, I don’t even know this person, I’m not even into men, how did she do that? On the flipside, “honeybee” is like a warm hug. So simple in its premise and execution, I’m won over purely by how disarming its affection is. Still, there is a haunting dread looming over this track particularly. Knowing that this relationship is temporary, whilst holding such strong feelings for them in the moment isn’t even dramatic irony, it’s just depressing.
This is a core element of what makes this almost the sleeper hit of her discography. She’s kind of perfected her ability to suckerpunch the listener with a really bittersweet turn of phrase, or a devastating sour note right at the conclusion. Revealing a grim reality lingering beneath the flowery surface. The use of misleading titles plays into this duality further, I’ve already cited two of them. “the cure” not only doesn’t feature Robert Smith of The Cure (that would be “what’s wrong with me”), but it also pulls the rug out and reveals a bigger, more hopeless picture once you reach the chorus. To rewind back to the beginning, “drop dead” is a ghastly statement in and of itself. If you played the guessing game with yourself of what this was going to be about, what would you have assumed? Any takers? Were you even close in your estimations? I’m not a gambling man, but I think I’d be comfy staking a fair wad of cash on the answer being *no*.
Juxtapositions, while not an altogether fresh concept, lend themselves well to a duality of both love and love lost. What seems like something upbeat on the very tip of the surface becomes the point where hope for a romance collapses. Olivia doesn’t fall into the trap of self-flagellation either. If anything, on tracks like “less” and “begged”, she’s honest about how much she’s given and how little has been returned. It’s a powerful stance for her to take at the crossroads of a faltering relationship. Even in this album’s most emotionally dire moments, she knows there’s better to be had elsewhere. Vice versa, in ‘girl so in love’’s most empowered moments, there’s the slightest hint of tragedy gnawing at the back of her and your mind. Once again, it’s this appearance of polarity that gives Olivia’s latest such a cold bite. Maybe opposites really do attract…
Dan Will Review 