{"id":561,"date":"2026-06-12T19:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T19:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=561"},"modified":"2026-06-12T19:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T19:42:17","slug":"olivia-rodrigo-has-no-chill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=561","title":{"rendered":"Olivia Rodrigo Has No Chill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

At times, the defining mood of the 2020s seems to be disassociation. The culture of these years will be remembered for lots of things that dulled and distracted the senses: easygoing country music, friendly AI chatbots, ketamine nasal sprays, conspiracy theories that were preferable to the truth, and droning podcasts about all of the above. Feeling is out; vibing is in.<\/p>\n

Read more AI Watchdog: Sleeping-DISCO-9M<\/a><\/p>\n

But the case against this line of thinking is simple: Olivia Rodrigo.<\/p>\n

In early 2021, the then\u2013Disney star\u2019s single \u201cDrivers License\u201d pierced the pandemic-weary zeitgeist like a geyser in a desert. The song\u2019s soppy piano and screamed choruses served to interrupt the flow of any playlist by triggering the listener\u2019s sympathy and, perhaps, alarm (Is she okay? Am I okay?<\/em>). Her albums Sour<\/em> (2021) and Guts<\/em> (2023) flaunted clever wit and theater-kid poise with adventuresome work from the rock producer Dan Nigro\u2014but the real asset was her ferocity. As she hopped between punk crunchiness and bedroom-pop intimacy, every trembling lyric was backed by palpable, well, guts.<\/p>\n

Her third album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love<\/em>, makes that earlier work sound like kids\u2019 stuff. That\u2019s not to dismiss what she did before\u2014she was bottling a particularly teenage form of spite, hot and thin like boiling water. Now that she\u2019s all of 23 years old, the emotional brew is thicker and even messier. The album narrates what she has called her first \u201cadult\u201d relationship, and it was initially meant to be entirely made up of love songs. Then she and her guy broke up, and the work got darker. The result is a wild listening experience\u2014so intense it verges on sickening.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s in unstable territory from the first moments of the lead track, \u201cDrop Dead.\u201d A synth riff evokes the wistfulness of a John Hughes movie, but it\u2019s rhythmically shifty, like she\u2019s about to bolt. Rodrigo sings about a first date in a slithering, secretive tone of voice\u2014then starts stabbing one note over and over for the chorus. The effect is unnervingly happy. One imagines the narrator of the Proclaimers\u2019 most maniacal hit undertaking their 500-mile journey with a double dose of Vyvanse.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Quite soon, Rodrigo is fully crashing out. \u201cI feel right, I feel wrong, I feel totally insane,\u201d she sings on the stunning \u201cStupid Song,\u201d which sets the honeymoon phase to pulsing piano and galloping drums. The track apes the softly anthemic approach of U2, Coldplay, and the National\u2014until all of that elegant uplift topples like an overly ambitious wedding cake. Next, the ballad \u201cHoneybee\u201d sounds midnight-stark until a choir appears like sudden floodlights, beautiful and harsh. A duo of jangle-pop delicacies, \u201cMaggots for Brains\u201d and \u201cU + Me = <3,\u201d wave red flags as if they\u2019re pom-poms. \u201cAnd sometimes, at a low point \/ I even wish for a tragedy,\u201d Rodrigo sings, \u201c\u2019Cause I know he\u2019d come over \/ And take real good care of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The starkly self-incriminating nature of those lyrics marks a nice evolution in the contemporary canon of heartbreak pop. Rodrigo came up under the influence of Taylor Swift, who taught a generation of singers how to write post-breakup disses lightly dashed with antiheroic confessions. But now Rodrigo is pulling at a thread underlying the modern crisis of young romance: the way that dating has become bound up with goal-seeking and social performance. The album opens with her stalking the perfect guy on her phone; midway through the track list, she has the relationship she dreamed of yet is still unable to feel secure. The villain isn\u2019t only her man\u2014it\u2019s also \u201call the pretty girls in the foreground of my mind,\u201d as she sings in \u201cThe Cure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more AI Watchdog: Spotify<\/a><\/p>\n

As she explores these tensions, Rodrigo portrays herself as straining against the confines of her art form: She wants her man \u201cmore than any stupid song could ever say,\u201d and she warns that \u201cit\u2019s too hard to describe this \/ In a way that feels honest.\u201d But really, she\u2019s quite adept at getting her point across, combining vivid anecdotes (a cry on the curb at LAX), fascinating inflections (full-abandon yodels, facetious sultriness), and highbrow crudity (\u201cThey say modern love\u2019s a cruel endeavor \/ And to that I say, \u2018Fuck it, whatever!\u2019\u201d). This queen of lyrical literalism is even starting to experiment with metaphor, though she hits low points with the bland medical imagery of \u201cThe Cure\u201d and figurative misfires of \u201cBegged\u201d (\u201cI\u2019m an anchor in the ocean \/ You know I could never leave\u201d\u2014but what if the captain were to crank the winch?).<\/p>\n

In any case, as Rodrigo surely knows, music is precisely the medium with which to convey unspeakable feelings. Leaving pop punk behind, she and Nigro mine a stately, orchestrated sonic lineage running from 1980s New Wave through \u201990s alt-rock to 2000s indie\u2014musical traditions that have served to dress up grubby neuroses (obsession, self-hatred) in cinematic splendor. The album is laden with references to the Cure, including a great cameo from Robert Smith. Rodrigo clearly understands that his band\u2019s essence lies not only in its dreamy guitars but also in the total abjection beneath them.<\/p>\n

Still, as Rodrigo\u2019s songwriting matures, the heavy referentiality of Nigro\u2019s production is starting to seem silly. The nostalgia bait on her previous albums was refreshing\u2014she was a Disney teen, yes, but she had the taste of a High Fidelity<\/em> clerk. Zoomers and Boomers unite! By now that sort of novelty has worn off. When I listen to the future karaoke classic \u201cExpectations,\u201d I want to admire the songcraft\u2014the loop-de-looping hooks, the satisfying call-and-responses. But my brain is pulled toward figuring out whether the song sounds most like Cyndi Lauper, Gary Numan, or the B-52s.<\/p>\n

The imitative nature of the production is, really, how Rodrigo is most in line with the pop norms she otherwise defies. Burrowing into the past with our phones, streaming the familiar at the expense of the new, is one method people use to numb themselves to the present. Rodrigo, brain on and heart open, makes art about the terrifying thrill that comes with giving the here and now everything you\u2019ve got. Were she to write her own musical language, she\u2019d cut an even deeper mark.<\/p>\n

Read more What to Read When You\u2019re Wondering What\u2019s Out There<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pop star\u2019s biggest asset is her ferocity\u2014and her new record doubles down on those big, messy feelings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"yoast_head":"\nOlivia Rodrigo Has No Chill - Commercial Relocation Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=561\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Olivia Rodrigo Has No Chill - Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The pop star\u2019s biggest asset is her ferocity\u2014and her new record doubles down on those big, messy feelings.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=561\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-12T19:42:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=561#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=561\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\"},\"headline\":\"Olivia Rodrigo Has No Chill\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-12T19:42:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=561\"},\"wordCount\":1074,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=561#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/a63ce97f57c61631fe7abc05af5c4092.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=561#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=561\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=561\",\"name\":\"Olivia Rodrigo Has No Chill - 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