Olivia Rodrigo “you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love” Album Review

"you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love" Album Art

Written by Sanne Boere & Magda Kanecka | July 2026

Pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo is back with her third studio album! Following her previous tradition of expanding the tracklist by one additional song each album, “you seem pretty sad for  a girl so in love” counts 13 songs, produced by Dan Nigro and released via Geffen Records.

It touches on themes previously explored by Rodrigo: growing up as a woman in the world of love, insecurities, and other personal struggles.

Split into two parts – “girl so in love” and “you seem pretty sad” – it is evident the album presents two core motives: falling in love, while also struggling on your own; both of which are themes many listeners will find relatable. 

This is certainly a release not to miss, whether you casually heard a snippet of “drop dead” on the radio over the past few weeks, or whether you’re a long-time Olivia Rodrigo fan. Here are our thoughts on the hit album which will undoubtedly be one of the best of the year.

girl so in love: Sanne

Track 1: “drop dead”

Thrilled with excitement since it was first announced, at BRUIT. we have already reviewed the single upon its release. 

You can read Sanne’s review of “drop dead” here!

Track 2: “stupid song”

I knew I loved this song from the get-go. Olivia repeatedly admits that no lyric could ever capture the enormity of what she’s feeling, yet ironically proves herself wrong by filling the track with some of the album’s richest imagery. 

Nearly every metaphor hints at love’s ability to consume the self: a car with no brakes, a wax heart melting in the sun, a thread slowly unraveling from someone’s shirt. Even the bridge, with its repetitive declarations of uncertainty, borders on obsession rather than romance. It’s an exhilarating look into the album’s central relationship, introducing both the joy and the vulnerability that define everything that follows. 

Track 3: “honeybee”

After the intensity of “stupid song,” “honeybee” feels more gentle. Instead of relying on dramatic declarations, Olivia finds romance in quiet routines; walking home together, sitting in the dark, and reaching out to someone already there. Simplicity is at the core of the track.

Yet, beneath the sweetness lies an unmistakable anxiety. The repeated line, “I hope I never see what your face looks like going / A face I swear I could spend my whole life knowing,” reveals that even the happiest moments are haunted by the possibility of losing the person you love. This tension gives the song emotional depth, transforming what could have been a straightforward love ballad into one of the album’s most quietly heartbreaking moments.

Track 4: “maggots for brains”

While sounding fun and upbeat, this track is easily one of the album’s darkest songs. It uses grotesque imagery to portray the emotional emptiness that follows separation. 

What I love most about this track is how accurately it portrays emotional dependence. Every lyric reinforces the idea that her partner has become the center of her world, to the point where his absence drains the colour from everything around her. The mouldy fruit sitting in the fridge, the inability to write, going to parties “only on principle,” and wishing she could tell them every funny thing that happens, all paint a picture of someone who’s no longer living for themselves, but entirely around someone else. Even the repeated refrain of “what can I do but think of you?” is a way for her to express she feels trapped inside her own mind.

Olivia wishes something tragic would happen just so that her partner would come back and care for her; this confession is uncomfortable, but intentionally so. Rather than glamourising unhealthy attachment, Olivia exposes how irrational loneliness can become, making this one of the records most psychologically revealing tracks.

Track 5: “u + me = <3”

With this track, Olivia embraces youthful optimism without feeling naive. The playful title reflects the song’s personality, but underneath the charming details about girlfriends, Cadbury chocolate, and meeting the family of her partner, is someone cautiously allowing herself to believe in love again. 

Olivia balances realism with self-awareness, acknowledging that she’s made these promises before, but that this relationship feels different enough that she’s willing to risk getting hurt again.

The song also captures one of the album’s recurring ideas: hope despite uncertainty. Lyrics like “I know everybody changes, but I hope that we don’t” recognise that permanence is impossible, yet chooses to believe in it anyway. That mixture of realism and romanticism makes the track feel earnest.

Track 6: “my way”

“my way” is a welcome burst of confidence after several emotionally vulnerable songs. With this song Olivia directs her frustration outward, confronting someone unwilling to accept that their relationship is over. The lyrics are witty, biting, and refreshingly direct, allowing her trademark sarcasm to take center stage.

Despite its confrontational tone, the track never feels mean-spirited for the sake of it. The humourous lines “last time I checked, I won” and “you’re being fucking weird” makes the track playful. It’s an empowering detour that reminds listeners that Olivia is just as convincing when writing sharp, tongue-in-cheek pop-rock as she is when writing devastating ballads.

Track 7: “purple”

A track that acts as one of the emotional centerpieces of the album, using colour as an elegant metaphor for identity within a relationship. The image of two separate colours blending into something entirely new beautifully captures the intimacy of building a life together. Domestic details such as sharing a toothbrush, a favourite florist’s and grocery store, show how love gradually shapes everyday life.

However, the track’s brilliance lies in how subtly it shifts. What begins as a celebration of closeness slowly becomes a reflection on codependency, culminating in the haunting refrain “melt with you ‘til it all turns black.” By questioning whether being “so in love” has become being “too attached,” Olivia reframes the album’s earlier love songs with newfound ambiguity. It’s one of her most mature pieces of songwriting, suggesting that even the happiest relationships can carry the seeds of self-loss.

“purple” is the perfect song to introduce listeners to the second part of the album.

you seem pretty sad: Magda

Track 8: “the cure”

As the second single from the album, “the cure” stands strong: it opens the second half of the tracklist while carrying forward the yearning themes from the first half. The core, most viral line from the track: “But my head is full of poison and my heart is filled with doubt / I got toxins in my bloodstream, you tried hard to suck them out” leading onto the later repeated title line “It’ll never be the cure”, describe the conflicting feelings at the beginning of a new relationship.

What I love about this song is the raw emotion captured beautifully and in such a relatable way: Olivia is expressing that she wants to love another person, but somehow, a part of her is stopping her from allowing such vulnerability, fearing it may be jeopardised.

Track 9: “begged”

Opening with acoustic guitar strings that carry throughout the track, “begged” pleads for simpler times with another person, swallowing insecurities at the cost of someone else’s happiness.

The layered vocals in the chorus lines land particularly well as her voice reaches emotional depth. Once she gets what she’s asking for, the simpler times in a relationship, they feel backhanded, given that she had to beg for them. Descriptive of anxieties and feeling “trapped inside [one’s] mind”, this track hits close to home for those who have ever felt like they had to try their hardest to get the bare minimum from someone they just wanted to love.

Track 10: “what’s wrong with me” ft. Robert Smith

A collaboration with the frontman of the legendary British band The Cure, first performed at Primavera Sound Festival 2026, this track is self-critical, acknowledges personal struggles and a desperate search for ways to cope.

It is only towards the end of the chorus that the song takes a more love-style note, with the line “I think you’re what’s wrong with me” – yet again, likening the feeling to a sickness, as if it is something that needs fixing.

Opening with a drum beat and introducing rhythmic synth notes in its production down the line, this is a truly timeless track – Robert Smith’s vocals blend in well with Rodrigo’s equally emotive tone, as if demonstrating a push-and-pull between the two artists.

Track 11: “less”

Leading with piano notes previously seen in Rodrigo’s most emotionally charged songs like “1 step forward, 3 steps back” from “SOUR” (2021) or “logical” from “GUTS” (2023), “less” prays for a miracle, with the narrator begging for sleep, desperate to wake up the next morning and find that the nightmare she describes, had never happened.

The track is a showcase of Olivia’s vocal range, while also sticking to the core themes of the second half of the album: pain. Lines such as “If loving me means letting go / And wishing me the best / Then I guess I wish, I wish, I wish you loved me less” acknowledges that sometimes, as time passes, certain relationships (not exclusively romantic ones) fade away.

The verses of “less” are more spoken, while the chorus still allows her to hit some of the highest notes on the album. In it, Olivia is hoping that in her avoidance, the pain of letting someone go will stop; but the repercussions do not always come as simply.

Track 12: “expectations”

From the get-go, this is a tale of perfectionism and high standards if I’ve ever seen one, in the best way! The track leads with an alternative drum and guitar combo, which is accompanied with electronic synth notes that all build up as the song progresses.

Like in the 2023 track “bad idea, right?” from her previous album “GUTS”, the second verse opens on a spoken note, almost said through a microphone, and I love to see that after a set of sadder and more vulnerable tracks, Rodrigo is describing how she feels she is still objectively more mature than a lot of the guys she encounters, for example: “Don’t think my future husband’s at this bar in Silverlake”.

Lyrically, as mentioned, it creates a great contrast to the previous tracks: instead of making herself smaller, Olivia describes how men her age often disappoint instead of living up to her “expectations”: another motive many women will relate to, no matter their age.

The upbeat track is relatable, fun, and just an overall good vibe both in lyrics and production alike, almost mocking when the voice switches to a male, robotic voice in the bridge, repeating the lines “She’s got (real) big expectations” over and over, as if proving the exact point Olivia is making throughout the song!

Track 13: “cigarette smoke”

The longest song on the album, at nearly six minutes in length, “cigarette smoke” opens on acoustic notes before diving into regrets of trusting someone that did not deserve it in the long-run.

These carry into the chorus which is accompanied by light violin notes in the background – a detail I particularly love about the track. I think it wraps the album up so well, adding an almost nostalgic-melancholic feel to it. 

The track climaxes around its four and a half minute mark, where the violins pick up and Olivia’s voice lands more emotively. In the lyrics, she further references the previous track “honeybee”, and carries on past themes of betrayal and regret: which she has touched on not only on the earlier tracks of this album, but also in her earlier discography, with songs like “vampire” (2023) and “traitor” (2021).

As for Olivia’s closing tracks from her three albums, this one takes the spot as my favourite so far. She strives to forget the bad experiences she’s had, pretending they didn’t affect her as much as they did deep down.

As the final track fades out, it is safe to say that on “you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love”, Olivia is undoubtedly her most vulnerable yet – but in this, she finds ways to make it fun and relatable when appropriate, and tunes it down when the tracks get more serious. 

While it was almost certain she would not disappoint, this album carries on her legacy as a main pop girl (though notably, she also expands into other genres on this album). While the core themes and production styles she has explored before are present on her third album, this one is easily also the most experimental. If you have somehow missed this release, this is your sign to give it a listen. There is something for almost everyone within the 13-song tracklist.

Follow Olivia Rodrigo here!

Listen to “you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love” here!

Magda’s top 3:

1. “maggots for brains”

2. “my way”

3. “expectations” 

Sanne’s top 3:

1. “u + me <3”

2. “maggots for brains”

3. “cigarette smoke”