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Olivia Rodrigo's new album reviewed - You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love

Dipping into New Wave sounds, 'Liv dissects the end of a relationship with hooks and confessional beauty on her third LP

[Olivia Rodrigo]

Post break-up has never sounded so good thanks to Olivia(Image: Getty Images)

An album of two halves (just in time for the World Cup), Liv documents the rise and fall of a relationship while never abandoning the killer pop hooks on third opus, You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love.

Dwelling on the anxiety perceived happiness can bring as relationships become more complex, the pace of the music echoes her emotions from romantic chamber pop highs to introspective lows as the LP progresses.

Last summer's Glastonbury headliner also expands her range by layering a 1980s New Wave production onto the punk pop palette resulting in wonderfully discordant guitar detail on Drop Dead, and perfectly capturing the alternative swagger of the Pixies during The Cure.

Speaking of The Cure their gloomy/rousing presence can be felt all over the chiming guitars of Maggots For Brains, and Robert Smith even pops up on the synthy Whats Wrong With Me, an unusually articulate account of being paralysed by depression.

Olivia has an ability to floor you with her honesty and this, combined with a confessional vocal style, elevates some otherwise straightforward pop tunes. U + Me becomes the ultimate John Hughes heroic movie theme song, but she can also deliver a Broadway sparkle to end-of-relationship piano ballad Less where her ex wishes her "the best.

Its triumphant and tragic all at once, brimming with melancholic lyrical prowess.

DAILY STAR RATING ****

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Olivia is rather fond of the new music herself and told Capital: "I think 'The Cure' is my favourite song, I love that song. I love the last song Cigarette Smoke a lot.

"I really love Purple. Oh, and I love Honeybee. Sorry, Im saying so many songs. Theyre all just so different for various different reasons I think they reflect different stages of growing up. So, they all have different special places in my heart."

And as unlikely as it sounds, she's prepared for it to fail.

Even if my album flops and nobody likes it, she said. If I feel like, This is real, this is me/ Im exactly where Im supposed to be, then itll feel like success.

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