CODEPENDENCY AND INFATUATION have become common themes that surround and outline the modern age’s love story clichés. As music transcends beyond mere tunes and ultimately defines local phenomena for a collective, Olivia Rodrigo’s latest album, “you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love,” has touched on the ever-so-constant ingredients that make up your typical Gen Z dating experience; a recipe that outlasts the very relationship it defines.
“You seem pretty sad for a girl so in love” is the third studio album of Filipino-American pop singer Olivia Rodrigo, containing 13 tracks, released on June 12. In wholeheartedly abiding by its theme, these tracks are arranged according to their chronological spot in the cliché sequence of events in today’s love tragedies, with two categories being “girl so in love” and “you seem pretty sad”.
As the world grows no longer foreign to heartbreaks and the “butterflies in the stomach” feels, The Bedan delves slightly deeper through the anthem of an album in what most mistakenly associate as the typical journey to a “happily ever after.”
“Girl so in love”? More like “Girl so unstable”
“Girl so in love” introduces the first half of the album, as opened by the lead single, “drop dead,” with the speaker expressing strong romantic desires and admiration for someone, causing them to “drop dead” with a single kiss. The lead single summed up and set the tone for the following songs, such as “stupid song,” “maggots for brains,” and “honeybee.” For someone entering the honeymoon stage of their relationship, these songs will nudge that ever-familiar feeling of always wanting someone close, as if the world will end once their presence goes away.
These songs’ relatability might be defined as mere sentimentality or excessively romantic, but as music continues to shape common experiences for people, the way these songs oversaturate the feeling of love as an obsessed-like conduct poses a threat for the vulnerable and easily influenced, instilling the idea that emotional dependence is a desirable form of intimacy.
While these reflect contemporary times, these dream-pop songs give rise to a question faced in reality: whether modern love has selfishly become overtly central to one’s sense of self-worth and revolves around emotional validation instead of mutual growth and independent emotional development.
This section of excessive romanticization, for the album, becomes the bridge that solidifies its self-awareness, knowing that such will ultimately lead to the relationship’s and the speaker’s emotional deterioration.
I’m unraveled: When love fails as a fix
A love growing so cold sets in as half of the tracklist uncovers the unembellished part of a relationship with “the cure,” “begged,” “what’s wrong with me (featuring Robert Smith of The Cure),” “less,” “expectations,” and “cigarette smoke.” “You seem pretty sad,” the thematic portion of the album, encapsulates the emotional fallout, disillusionment, and self-doubt following a toxic or fading relationship.
The most common misconception about relationships is that they are designed with rainbows, butterflies, and a haven from life’s hurdles. Yet the truth can be more complicated: oftentimes there would be moments when a relationship becomes the very thing someone feels the need to escape.
The opening track for this section, “the cure,” represents the pivotal turning point where the narrator acknowledges their mistake as they thought that entering into a relationship would serve as a cure or antidote to their personal problems and insecurities.
The following tracks, namely “less” and “begged,” share the individual’s realizations of fatigue from constantly fighting for someone’s attention, while “what’s wrong with me” explores the internalized anxiety and self-doubt from romantic disappointment. Lastly, the closing pieces, “expectations” and “cigarette smoke,” depict the melancholic aftermath of a love that did not end as the initial promises.
This album transcends beyond being just a breakup album, as it lays out the entire trajectory of one’s growth in navigating a path of what seems like a secure love, but instead exposes a pattern of grand feelings of infatuation, leading downhill to a disappointment as grand as such. From intense and desperate ambition to make the bond last, moving to a painful realization, ending in a bittersweet search for healing and closure.