Olivia Rodrigo Finds Balance

She remains a razor-sharp storyteller, even with a slightly softer sound.

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THE THIRD ALBUM from a major commodity in mainstream music is a massive test. A breakthrough debut introduces an artist’s character and pet sounds that, with luck, get refined on a sophomore album. If their next outing doesn’t keep carefully evolving, they can get branded a one-trick pony, but pushing the envelope too far can alienate day-one fans. Celebrity Skin (1998), Hole’s third studio album, neatened up Courtney Love’s sound and image after her Golden Globe nom for The People vs. Larry Flynt, exchanging the guttural shrieks and tattered garb of her early-’90s oeuvre for sleeker pop-rock hooks and chic threads. Fans and critics met her pivot with begrudging respect thanks to the strength of the album’s melodies. Olivia Rodrigo is a student of Love and her ilk who has been riding high on the one-two punch of 2021’s Sour and 2023’s Guts, chart-toppers dually indebted to modern pop and ’90s grunge. You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, the 23-year-old singer’s latest, dodges the third-album conundrum of whether to embrace sweeping change. Instead, Rodrigo delicately rearranges the ideas that animated her first two albums.

Sad doesn’t ditch the balladry and brusque rock that yielded hits like the hushed “Drivers License” and the harsh “Brutal.” Rather, it bakes down the usual ingredients of a Rodrigo work—fluttering vocals, feelings of abandonment, occasional fuzz tones—to a more cohesive confection of bittersweet, maximalist pop-rock that largely borrows from the ’80s. It’s a concept album about the thrills and chills of life with a partner who turns out to be a mismatch. Less reliant on abrasive rock tones, her sound loses some urgency, but she fights to make up for the more restrained approach with laser-guided storytelling. Sad may not reach the heights of her previous projects, but it’s a ferocious showcase of her strengths.