This album is a true Album Of The Year… it made cultural buzz, made debates on where Olivia stands, made Olivia now a respected feminist, it’s sonically and lyrically impeccable and it cements Olivia in a league of her own.
This album goes in 2 halves, 15 chapters (including ‘serena joy’ and ‘never do’) with each one telling a certain part of the relationship. The first half, nicknamed ‘girl so in love’ is based on the first date all the way through to the over-dependence. ‘drop dead’ represents the first date butterflies that make you want to skip down sidewalks and run through poppy fields, ‘stupid song’ is the time period after the first date where you get with the guy and him, his opinion, and him clouding everything other priorities and thoughts is all that matters and happens, ‘honeybee’ is the feeling of hoping he never leaves and helps you through the darkness you always fear while holding your hand, ‘maggots for brains’ is the love and affection withdrawal of not having your lover, causing you to go haywire. ‘U+Me=<3’ is the phase of the relationship where you’re unaffected and unfazed by issues that don’t exist to you. ‘my way’ starts the bad parts when a girl thinks he can get with your boyfriend, crossing lines like jump ropes just to get to him, and lastly, ‘purple’ is how they have become 1 happy brain, until the end where she explains that the over-dependence on either side is killing them both.
The second half of the album is ‘you seem pretty sad’, which is the over-dependence to the relationship death. ‘the cure’ represents her mental issues not being fixed with the relationship, even when he does all he can and tries to suck the venom out, it’ll never be the cure. ‘begged’ is the stage where her guy starts to drift and starts doing less, making her beg for things she should be getting without asking. ‘what’s wrong with me (feat Robert Smith) is a track about her life and habits falling apart, where even the wine, medication, friends helping isn’t doing anything to help her get better, she realizes it’s him, he’s what’s wrong with her. ‘less’ is about her and him struggling and shoving unsuccessful efforts to save this flat tire of a relationship, using the phrase ‘I love you enough to leave you’ to tell him that she wants him to damage her so she can stay with him. ‘expectations’ is about how she’ll never date a guy who isn’t worth her time, or just isn’t worth it in general. ‘cigarette smoke’ is about that deadweight feeling of carrying sorrow and regret of the relationship, knowing you were on borrowed time even while on the first date. The two bonus tracks are unique, ‘never do’ is about how If he wants her to feel better and happier, why doesn’t he do anything about it, and ‘serena joy’ is about MAGA and republican women and POC voting against themselves, and taking away their own rights and freedoms while licking white male republlicans’ boots.
All in all, this album is one of the decade, completely blowing SOUR and GUTS out of the water and becoming 85% of people’s AOTY
