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 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

This album is great, isn't it? I'm predisposed to like a concept album like this but every song is beautiful and funny and open-hearted, "u + me = <3" the best of them. Surprisingly, the Robert Smith track is one I thought could have been better, but it's nice to see him here

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.

Totally otm

the 50 minutes just breezes by so easily

Tim otm here too. I was shocked when I saw the album goes past 50 minutes because it feels to me more like 35

I tried Guts and it was fine but it didn't move me. The new one seems like a big leap forward and I'm digging what I've heard so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDJpr52gaTw

He looks like Wilson Fisk's son.

Meant to add this earlier too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5iSNWxVPj8

There's a good tik tok I saw in my X feed of the guy from Dissect breaking down the structure of the album with 6 love songs ("red") and 6 sad songs ("blue") sandwiching "Purple" in the middle. I think this is pretty much right but I found it funny that when asked about the structure of the album on Popcast, Rodrigo didn't really seem to make much of it, or at least didn't elaborate much on the intentionality of it in that specific of a way.

Also, she's announced a curated festival in Irvine, CA that looks awesome. Kind of a modern, alternative Lilith Fair, feat. The Breeders, Bikini Kill, Chappel Roan, Mitski and more:

https://4d1c06dd.isolation.zscaler.com/profile/afbd67b4-f1b8-4636-ae6f-dc5c54eb2200/zia-session/?controls_id=aafb9ab5-49b5-4548-b972-0765d74faaca®ion=cle&tenant=7702f5fa2f72&user=e7d11207797f6fda81f0d7e078b33edb4d785f5e2028afdefc67d32bd2d274e3&original_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.daisychainfields.com%2Flineup&key=sh-1&hmac=f706504be519a817162d2e3627737770c72a0f5703c829cee980243e4cf245f1

A more direct link!

https://www.daisychainfields.com/lineup

lol thanks and sorry

Ha this line-up covers some of the two OR fans in my house favorite bands but it is too close to the first day of school for us to make it work sadly

I wonder why Karen O, Sarah McLachlan and Stevie Nicks are special guests, and what that means? I'm too lazy to go read a press release or whatever.

Maybe not doing full sets? Just showing up to vibe?

Nicks is a known fan.

seems likely ... something like that

how can you not love OR. this is three good to great (or more) albums, sharp as a tack, good politics which she backs up with action. she rules.

(xpost)

I'm obsessed with how she repeats "I'm unraveled" over and over again on "the Cure." Genius tells me this is considered a "Refrain"? Love this structure:

Verse 1
Verse 2
Chorus
Verse 3
Refrain
Chorus
Refrain
Bridge
Chorus

I was actually just noticing that structure while playing it on piano a few hours ago.

I know it's all about the promotion and reaching different audiences, but I really wish people wouldn't do interviews with Antony Fantano. He's such a hack and his influence on music fans (especially on Rate Your Music) really winds me up.

I'm obsessed with how she repeats "I'm unraveled" over and over again on "the Cure." Genius tells me this is considered a "Refrain"?

that's pretty clearly what most people would call a bridge, isn't it?

(the other part that genius is calling a bridge is either an extension of the first bridge, or a second bridge, either way would make sense to my ears)

Probably not the right place to ask this, but what makes a bridge a bridge?

I've always thought of it as the thing, usually in the middle (not the beginning or end) of a song that is not the verse and not the chorus.

Now that we're throwing refrain in I realize I have no clue

Yeah the cascading chorus of Olivias harmonizing on "I'm unraveled" is so good. Nigro really loves those stacks, does it with Chappell Roan a lot too.

what makes a bridge a bridge?

Mortar, a body of water, faith.

direction of travel for the J.B.'s

Doesn't the standard bridge occur between the penultimate and final chorus? If so, what Genius is calling the bridge is in the right place. Are there other examples of bridges that both repeat and occur between a verse and chorus? In that sense, what they're calling a refrain is almost more like a pre-chorus...

Ah, so it sets up the final chorus to come back with a vengeance and without having to fall back on another verse which could be too repetitive or less dynamic. Is that the deal?

in her encounter with Narduar, she mentions that she loves to write brdiges with Nigro. I would think she likes to write verses and choruses with him as well, but that's what she says,

in the pfork video discussing her songwriting, she credits him with helping her write a few bridges on the record, feel like he generally helps glue the songs together

Yeah, makes sense that she would write first drafts of the verses and choruses and then lean on him to help with the connective tissue, transitions, stitching it all up, etc. I absolutely love that guitar lick she calls out in the p4k video, too.

All for charity which is nice:
https://variety.com/2026/music/news/olivia-rodrigo-daisy-chain-fields-every-artist-doing-for-free-1236787957/

When Sawyer said she’d like to see Nicks and Rodrigo duet on “Landslide,” the pop star replied: “We might make that happen for you, Diane. We’ll see! Can’t give too much away.”

(Lazy ass post) Anyone seen any good interviews with/exposes on Nigro they'd recommend?

Maybe not what you're looking for, but I love this breakdown of the harmonies on the chorus of "Good Luck Babe." Just a glimpse of how he works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM2QUayzkm8

Doesn't the standard bridge occur between the penultimate and final chorus?

Ah, so it sets up the final chorus to come back with a vengeance and without having to fall back on another verse which could be too repetitive or less dynamic. Is that the deal?

no. it *can* come in that spot, but it can also come almost anywhere else in a song, once the song has established its basic structure. in verse-chorus-verse form, the bridge is typically a third part, a C part, that changes the mood and/or melody and/or rhythm. a break from the structure. a new part after you thought you had already heard all the parts.

it frequently, but not always, comes after a chorus. could be the first chorus. could be the second chorus. it might also come after a verse or after an instrumental section, and it will often serve as a literal "bridge" back to the previously established verse or chorus ("connective tissue, transitions," yes). it might be repeated somewhere else in the song. there might be a second, unrelated bridge somewhere along the way.

Thanks!

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