Olivia Rodrigo - You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love

https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/69ce96d85f00b67a0c52ea65/master/w_1600,c_limit/Olivia-Rodrigo-You-Seem-Pretty-Sad-for-a-Girl-So-in-Love.jpeg

you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love will be released by Geffen Records on June 12, 2026.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78wrful9cVU

A Cure reference, love it.

I like all those high harmonies. I have a Rodrigo-obsessed tween, so I'm going to hear it a lot this weekend...

It's a treat!

alright song but i hate the mix, it's super compressed and flat. there's a lot going on but you can't make out any of the details.

feels like it's going for a stylised lo-fi thing except like, why would you ever do that to a string-driven song like this?

there's also just not really any charm from putting cleanly-produced front & centre pop vocals over relatively lo-fi production

This song didn't give me the same rush as "Vampire " did or is in the same league as "Drivers License." It does have hooks and is fun. One listen in.

lucky for me all this Cure bullshit flies right over my head, otherwise LET'S GO

ok "Just Like Heaven" was a bit on the nose, even i get that

I like it. The loved up semi-spoken second verse is pure Don't Delete the Kisses.

why does this video look like someone left motion smoothing active on their TV

because it's 50fps

this is especially strange to combine with the vhs filter

Good single. I sat the last record out, but might have to give this one a shot.

Last record was better than the debut!

yeah, it's not for me, but I enjoyed everything I heard from it.

I liked a couple singles from the debut, and wasn't all that wowed by the ones I heard from the follow-up; thus, I suspected her of having a limited palette. I still sorta do, but the new one just sounded really nice and catchy to me.

ah to be young and in love. i love the versailles setting for the video.

This is really nice but not quite Guts-level nice yet, maybe

when she's fast she's good (now there's a new wave song title)

agree with that. the last album's rockers were awesome. the ballads were just OK. it was like two albums in one.

maybe i'm just impatient, though.

I really want to like this more than I do, because she's such a great performer and likeable personality, but this isn't grabbing me. But I preferred Deja Vu over Drivers License and I preferred Bad Idea Right over Vampire so I hope she keeps the pattern of saving the best songs for the second single

Why is she going so hard for the nonce market with the styling for this? Every time I see a promo or a post about it she’s wearing a little-girl outfit with her hair in pigtails and it really fucking sucks because her music has never been that vibe AT ALL.

Like I’m a little shocked nobody mentioned this aspect of the video ngl because it was not what I was expecting when I read “filmed in Versailles” and yes it’s more than a little gross!

https://i.postimg.cc/Kz86Z6zt/IMG-2929.jpg

^ comment not mine but otm re plausible deniability

song is a little stiff imo, still looking forward to the record

no opinion on whether she’s dressing up as a baby, mostly looked at the cover art and thought “oh i’d wear that dress,” i guess many people would consider me part of the problem

i know artists style themselves very intentionally in order to convey a narrative but i'm also wary of suggesting a woman is dressing to attract a certain kind of gaze

i was a little weirded out by the outfit tbf

xp uh

ok i'll drop out of this conversation

not gonna comment on the outfit but I will say I've always felt she serenades the Pop Needs Real Instruments Rolling Stone demographic, musically speaking

okay maybe I am gonna comment a bit. gyac otm - that she's gone this way in her aesthetics is an extremely unfortunate way to corroborate and build on what i've felt about her music

i liked her first album for what it was. fun pop punk. haven't listened to much subsequent stuff. this outfit is almost certainly intended to cause controversy, especially in this epstein zeitgeist, and i find that incredibly depressing and bleak.

kinda hilarious how public she's been about charting a course for her own aesthetic taste only to keep releasing lead singles that sound like taylor swift singles... the woman really loves taylor swift. i like this song well enough, i don't think it gives you much to chew on, it sounds a lot like taylor swift, tho it's actually better than most latter day taylor swift

Yeah, I had a similar impression of the song, the Taylor template and not so fresh now.

okay maybe I am gonna comment a bit. gyac otm - that she's gone this way in her aesthetics is an extremely unfortunate way to corroborate and build on what i've felt about her music

― imago, Monday, April 20, 2026 11:20 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i liked her first album for what it was. fun pop punk. haven't listened to much subsequent stuff. this outfit is almost certainly intended to cause controversy, especially in this epstein zeitgeist, and i find that incredibly depressing and bleak.

― treeship., Monday, April 20, 2026 11:53 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

ok, so, when i watched the video for the first time, i thought "that outfit looks really comfortable to sleep in" because it is a sheer soft-looking babydollish nightgown + bloomers, just the right amount of fabric to be enmeshed in when you're going to bed, and the vibe of the video was like "i am really excited about my crush in bed in the middle of the night but my bed happens to be in versailles," and i guess i've given you all of these impressions because none of them remotely entered the realm of "this looks targeted toward pedophiles," which, beyond that, i really don't give a shit how olivia rodrigo or sabrina carpenter choose to dress generally, let alone this way, but it's just hard for me to see it as "more than a little gross" because... who's being gross here? is there a direct causal link between women "dressing like babies" (which i've already established i don't think rodrigo is doing here) and csa? does it as i've seen in some corners of the internet "promote pedophilia"? i sorta think the more likely "promoters" of pedophilia in our world are, like, the existence of the catholic church and the nuclear family and a culture defined by male sexualization of women which targets them from the instant they're born. how women choose to dress in this environment is irrelevant to me because they will be sexualized no matter how they present themselves. i wear babydoll dresses because they make me feel nice and embodied and unfortunately i have no control over how men perceive me in that sort of outfit so i have to not care. and i'm sure olivia rodrigo as someone who came up as a disney teen star has felt this immediate, overwhelming sexualization from older men, and is familiar with it, and knows that she can't win, and chose to wear something cute and comfortable in her video

I guess that’s your conclusion. Thanks for the explainer as to how men sexualise women from the moment they are born, as though my conclusion wasn’t at least partially formed as someone who did have adult men making comments to me as a 12 year old in my school uniform. Having been a fan of Rodrigo for her previous persona in her music and how she’s presented herself publicly to date, it’s pretty fucking disappointing to have yet another female pop star lean into the sexy baby look. It’s worse when it’s singers like Olivia, Sabrina, and Ariana who have previously been pretty forthright about their adult sexuality. I don’t like it when grown women feel the need to portray themselves in this manner.

Thankfully we can assume that pop music never knowingly sexualises young women for profit, right?
https://i.postimg.cc/cHhvV3Sf/IMG-2943.jpg

I don't think there's any way for a woman to be the right kind of woman - you can't be too youthful because it's creepy but you can't be too old because you're past it, you can't wear make-up or have surgery because it's fake but you have to look nice and pretty regardless, and you can't be too passive but you can't be difficult, and you can't enjoy sexuality but you also cannot be frigid, and you can't play it safe and straddle the fence because then you're boring, and no matter what you do as a famous women you are always going to be told off for it.

I'm choosing to interpret the babydoll look as an homage to Courtney Love and Shirley Manson at their peak but I can see why it would make people uneasy here because Rodrigo isn't seen as that kind of woman.

gyac, i said all of that being aware of your experiences, and the "explainer" was more intended for the very stupid men who followed up your post. furthermore i do not understand what i'm supposed to see in that photo you posted

xp

xp Courtney and Shirley were wearing those babydoll dresses with cigarettes hanging from their mouths and smeared lipstick and with a heavy dose of irony. This is just the aesthetic without either the same irony or insight. It’s “Just A Girl” vs whatever Sabrina thought she was doing when she decided to sing “I’m full grown but I look like a niña.”

yeah but like, the discourse is not about whether it's insufficiently ironic. it's about how she's wrong and bad for targeting pedophiles

Maybe this isn’t a britney in the 90s thing idk. Just seemed like it.

she’s wearing a little-girl outfit with her hair in pigtails

but she's not doing that?

Yeah sorry my bad I mistook her headphones for pigtails in passing. She’s wearing a little girl outfit with headphones.

god not like this needs my input in any way, but i did feel a certain "ruling class fantasy" vibe from the video tbh. so youth objectification to the degree it's happening or not wouldn't exactly be a shocking accusation imo, it kinda tracks. on that level it does sound a lot like taylor swift.

tapping into the libidinal zeitgeist of the times, as fucked up as it may be, seems like a promising way to become a big star - i'm assuming that's the goal in this case.

i really don't give a shit how olivia rodrigo or sabrina carpenter choose to dress generally

nor do i

but this isn't about how they dress is it, it's about how they and their people have chosen to mediate them and their popstar status in their most prominent public communications of 2026

gyac aside here but men having extremely strong opinions on the appropriateness of a young woman pop star's clothing always strikes me as extremely weird and off putting, deep "the call is coming from inside the house" vibes

applies equally to both pro and con

i don't think a man w/o an opinion on this is projecting their own insecurities, weird personal history/opinions etc onto everyone else thru the medium of a female pop star's music video outfit...

The Smith duet is even sharper in its album version -- and you can spot his guitar tone in milliseconds.

"U + Me = <3" is the euphoric pop song I've been waiting for her to write.

god this fucking rules

a more satisfying full album experience than either of her previous records, every song offers something either sonically or lyrically that pulls me into its world of overwhelming excitement and overwhelming hurt

“maggots for brains” on repeat

"my way" is like a pink song if pink wrote better songs

love the way "maggots for brains" "my way" and "purple" (especially "i had big dreams 'til i tied myself to you") set up the heartbroken second half by implying that something is very wrong in the relationship dynamic from her end

Total grand slam of an album. (And yeah "Maggots for Brains" = a traet.)

Man she’s good. Will need time to know if I like it more than GUTS, but it’s a terrific album and totally cements her major-artist standing. One thing that jumps out at me as an advance is her confidence in her voice — always been a big instrument but I think she’s more sophisticated in how she uses it and writes for it. She doesn’t try to blow you away on every line or anything, but most songs have a point where she goes to it as a gear shift emotionally and melodically.

<3 Honeybee

Well this is predictably wonderful. Love "Maggots for Brains," which is very "Take On Me." (Just think "In a day or two" when she says "But think of you".)

I'm still not there with many of her ballads, but she keeps learning at an astronomical rate.

I need to find an hour this weekend to give this my full attention, but holy shit “drop dead” is just awesome

Glorious vocal arrangements! Hail Rodrigo! Hail nigro!

tbh the more i listen to it the more i think all of the songs on the happy side contain the sadness that comes into full bloom on the sad side. really excellent work

"stupid song" is so fucking good

CARVE OUR NAMES INTO THE CAR SEAT LEATHER

One of the FB groups I'm still a member of says the Smith duet sucks. I'm thinking of exiting.

Don't get it. The duet is an immediate album highlight.

Yeah, my friends are going crazy over it.

I have only heard the first half so far, because of work, but this is wonderful. She is superstar like someone said above.

I have heard the second halh and absolutely love "Expectations" as it sounds like it could have been released in 1987.

This will be my summer album, so good.

Incredible album with so many highlights. Expectations is the one that really took my breath away on the first listen.

The leap in quality from each of her albums so far has been so impressive to witness. The first album had too many ballads that didn't leave any impression on me. Here the ballads are some of the standouts. I can't wait to spend more time with this.

omg this fucking album

A mixed Zoladz review.

(The library's blocking archive.ph today fsr)

A "drop off in energy" with "stupid song"? Not to me! Also, "even if the Smith duet is more effective as a co-sign than a stand-alone song" — do what now? That's easily one of the best songs on the album. But contrary opinions are fine, sure. My own reservations to the extent I have them are with the back-end ballads — "begged" and "less" in particular, both fine but slight. But they'll probably earworm their way in with time.

i don't rate rodrigo much as a wordsmith, like i'm not really thinking of craft when i'm listening to her lyrics, but i do think she's, like, a soul-barer in a way that it sometimes shocks me how deep and vulnerable she'll go, and "begged" and "less" both really go there

Learning that her dad is the Cure fiend is delightful.

He used to quietly sing, "It doesn't matter if we all die" as he tucked young Olivia into bed.

His speech at her 21st birthday party was a bit odd though. “I’m just so proud to see the fur and the mouth and the innocence turned to hair and contentment that hangs in abasement - a woman now standing where once there was only a girl.”

Well I rate her as a wordsmith! Most pop artists, as well as the rock artists she wishes to convey she admires, are vague re Lyrics: she is very very specific and vivid in her words, like at levels one expects from contemporary country and r&B… her words are delivered with clarity and concision, she's very VERY funny…this quality is conveyed very definitively, and so is her alpha bitch character on "My Way," which is delivered with such aplomb that it suggests that an alpha bitch is who Olivia Rodrigo is, and we have to accept that an alpha bitch who scornfully and pitilessly puts her social lessers in their place is a major major force in 2026 creativity at a mass level.

I was slightly disappointed by this album at first, but now I love it. She's 3 for 3!

i thought i was finally getting tired of her schtick with the first few tracks here but then "maggots for brains" and "u + me = <3" are really great jangle pop pastiche

i really want to like this but i can't get past the vocal inflections... every S becomes a 'sch' and it winds me up

terrific album cover

CARVE OUR NAMES INTO THE CAR SEAT LEATHER

― ivy., Friday, June 12, 2026 4:16 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

This, to me, is the single best / most vivid / most thrilling lyric on the album. The kind of line a Taylor might wish she'd thought of first.

this thread is expressing a deep enthusiasm for this album that i expected to be matched elsewhere, but seems to not be -- i'm not making any sort of coded statement here, i haven't listened to the album myself, but the more i read reviews (nyt) and talk to ppl about it IRL i'm hearing way more mixed feelings than what are itt

I think some critics these days have a reaction against artistic maturity.

And I’m definitely thinking of one who writes for the NYT.

Average critic score of 86 by AOTY’s calculus, so that seems pretty positive.

Pitchfork even gave it a 8.7 or something like that along with BNM.

Form NYT, seems like the album was too SAD from them:

It might sound unfair to say I wish Rodrigo sounded like she were having more fun on an album titled “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love,” but she has amply proved in the past that a song can be born of difficult realizations and still feel like an adrenaline-rushing blast. The new material could use some of her old vitality.

for them

so much energy on this record that i don't really understand that pov

Yeah I had heard the “too many ballads” line going in and approached the album with that expectation, but to me they seem perfectly balanced with the uptempo (or at least energetic) tracks, the 50 minutes just breezes by so easily

It's been a little bit but I seem to remember thinking the pace of GUTS was more heavily disrupted/weighed down by its ballads, while this one feels more narrativized and thus the arc of the thing plays quite naturally and freely. I do think the way "Stupid Song" begins and builds to a remarkably satisfying climax could have worked well in the middle of the album, but then, that wouldn't suit the narrative structure of the album.

The melodrama in her voice on some songs is Not my thing. Will try again

Not the "scratching initials into a car seat" type, I see.

CARVE OUR NAMES INTO THE CAR SEAT LEATHER

― ivy., Friday, June 12, 2026 4:16 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

This, to me, is the single best / most vivid / most thrilling lyric on the album. The kind of line a Taylor might wish she'd thought of first.

― Indexed, Monday, June 15, 2026 10:26 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I dug my key into the side
Of his pretty little souped up four-wheel drive
Carved my name into his leather seats

Dang, think I'd subconsciously memory holed that song forever