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...

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 9:26 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Forget it. "They say modern love's a cruel endeavor/ And to that I say fuck it, whatever!" has my vote.

Not a fan of people dueting/singing together on "Landslide," sort of misses the point of the song, which is all but literally a solo endeavor.

cigarette smoke sounds like a Madeline Kenney song

A little obsessed with "The Cure" this week, transcendent and miserable at the same time is a real achievement. All of the album tho, classic. In line with my cynical humor and yacht rock music taste.

Robert Smith's presence wholly unnecessary tho but it's not my record.

"Expectations" is such a jam too

me and my eight-year-old daughter can’t get enough of this record at the moment, it’s a fucking gem

‘me can’t get enough’ ffs caveman-ass olivia rodrigo stan

Caveman Depeche Mode cover

enjoying the thought of how many first-ever summer romances are going to be soundtracked by the glorious, giddy rush of u + me = <3, and how many broken hearts will be later soothed by ‘i know everybody changes, but i hope that we don’t’, which is the bittersweet centre of this wonderful song

the descending melody on those first 2 lines of the chorus, chef's kiss

xxpost sung by Cookie Monster

"u + me = <3" is def the song that's been stuck in my head for the last few days

OK, very modestly fun little exercise. Apparently there was an Olivia Rodrigo sighting at the airport last night. The two headliners at Lollapalooza tonight are Charli XCX and Smashing Pumpkins. I don't think she has ever worked with Charli XCX, but her new album is more rock oriented, and they are both sort of beefing with Taylor Swift, so it could be a power move on that front. But Rodrigo's own output aligns her more with the Smashing Pumpkins, even though as far as spotlight moves go I'm not sure what she gains beyond the experience, since the audience will likely be smaller and old people and the band is way past its prime. She'd probably still make headlines, of course.

So, if the rumors are true and she is in town: where is she going to pop up?

A lot of other acts there today too-- Oklou, Horsegiirl, Slayyter.

But yeah she went to a rave with Charli, so she might be there for her.

Hmm, it could indeed be a sort of reverse power move to pop up on one of those earlier stages with one of those other acts. I think Rodrigo has praised Oklou. And didn't a Slayyter/Rodrigo mashup make the rounds? I wonder if any two artists have ever performed/covered a mash-up before.

I still love this album very very much

Lollapalooza does have live streams this weekend via Disney+ and wasn't going to tune in. I m might now.

It’s also on Hulu and the Lolla website iirc

She’s a fan of the aging goth dudes

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dbe2ofSswww/?igsh=MWh6d2NuaGhsbHVjMw==

i burst into tears when she started singing "thirty-three," of all pumpkins songs my favorite one????

She really is the best

I do like that song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI0rodDL-U8

she's a genius

Love this song so much

better than most (all?) of the album

Maybe I’m reading too much into Robert Smith appearing on the most recent album, but it reminds a bit of some of the remixes on Mixed Up.

This is good too. Must admit I'm not playing this album like her other ones but it's still great.

the fast ones are great, "maggots for brains" into "u + me = <3" is such a killer back2back

she covered the magnetic fields for war-relief comp HELP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e-0IEXV8Cc

should have done "Papa Was a Rodeo."

A very pretty cover to add to the mountain of covers of this song that seem to fundamentally misunderstand the charm of the original is inherently tied to Merritt's deadpan delivery.

it's amazing how widely covered that song is now, I think we already discussed that on a chappel roan thread

Peter Gabriel's cover is probably the most well known one, and that one misses the point too.

ok folks. her new song is very good

the hundreds or maybe thousands of people who dance to "book of love" at their wedding also miss the point of the song and the magnetic fields wedding song should be "it's only time" anyway. doesn't seem to matter all that much at this point tho

Best is when a bride and groom pantomime "Yeah! Oh Yeah!" for the first dance.

I'm not sure what grander point there is to the song that is only able to be grasped by hearing Merrit sing it.

Yeah I feel like “The Book of Love” wears its gimmick and meaning on its sleeve. It’s not like people are doing wedding dances to “Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits” (though they should obviously)

i couldn't remember which Magnetic Fields song was on our wedding mix, turns out it was "The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side"

People dance to "The Book of Love"? Huh.

slowly, i would guess

I'm not sure what grander point there is to the song that is only able to be grasped by hearing Merrit sing it.

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Tuesday, August 25, 2026 3:44 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

TBF, I didn't claim there was a grander point. I said the charm of the original is in the delivery and vocals. No matter how pretty the cover, I've never heard one that made me smile, laugh, or cry the way Merritt's does.

People dance to "The Book of Love"? Huh.

Probably due to the "instructions for dancing" line.

Honestly I’m mostly unfamiliar with her music, but she seems like a real one. Daisy Chain appears to have been a huge success, and I’m sure she’s pissing off the right people these days.

I’m sure Musk will be going for her once he realises Billie Eilish doesn’t give a shit what he says.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R5shF3Q1-E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZvlXxqfjuY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaSMLJYt828