Expectations ran high, but so did cynicism. Mere weeks after "Drivers License" completed its eight-week reign atop the Billboard Hot 100, Rodrigo began teasing her second single. "Deja Vu" was released as a single on April 1. Lil Nas is a hitmaker by trade, but at his core, he's a reflexively honest 22-year-old who's trying his best to figure everything out - and managing to help us feel less alone in the process. Each deceptively simple lyric feels like a soft touch in a dark room. "I need time to get up and get off the floor," he sings in the chorus, a phrase that doubles as a post-breakup diary entry and a mid-pandemic proverb. He invites us beyond his fortress walls with the very first line ("Tell me, are you feeling down?"), turning his recovery into a group huddle.
Still, Lil Nas doesn't let betrayal steal his tenderness. "Lost in the Citadel" finds Lil Nas suspended in a state of longing - for an "angel" who let him down, but also for a version of himself that feels powerful, rather than deceived and eroded. If you've only had the pleasure of listening to hits like "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" and "Industry Baby," you probably wouldn't expect that a confessional emo-pop banger is the most striking track on Lil Nas X's debut album. "Lost in the Citadel" was released as the eighth track on "Montero." Following in the grand tradition of Robyn's "Dancing On My Own," Mitski watches love slip away amid a flurry of '80s synths, drawing strength from the delirium that only comes from being vulnerable.Īs Pitchfork's Sue Park wrote, "Even as Mitski casts herself as 'the bad guy in the play,' the song's feverish pulse asks: When devastation leaves everything charred and desolate, what is left to do but dance in its wake?" This tension is highlighted by the song's exuberant production. While Mitski's initial declaration comes across as sincere, the second verse is tinged with defiance: "I'll be the water main that's burst and flooding / You'll be by the window, only watching," she sings, as if to proclaim, "I may have made mistakes, but at least I gave you what I could." Failure comes from effort, not observation.
"The Only Heartbreaker" was released as a single on November 9.Īt first, it's difficult to tell if Mitski's self-appointed role as "The Only Heartbreaker" is meant as a statement of guilt or pride. Just as soon as the spell begins to work, when you're ready to forgive Abrams for whatever pain she's caused, she hangs up. Dessner's gleaming guitar plucks swell around her, and a skittering bass pattern mimics an anxious heartbeat. "I see you every night in my sleep / Anticipating every bad dream," she chants, almost as if she's casting a spell. The song's production, provided by Taylor Swift's newly favored collaborator Aaron Dessner, is fittingly delicate - until the bridge, when Abrams' voice adopts a new sense of urgency. Her lyrics favor sincerity over complexity, allowing her to slip past emotional walls, especially paired with the hushed warmth of her vocals. Gracie Abrams writes about regret and homesickness with the simplicity of someone who really means it: "Hey, who took my place in bed when I left? / Who laughs at everything that you've said? / I'm sure that I would like her / If I were slightly nicer." "Rockland" sounds like a wine-drunk voicemail from an ex at 4 a.m.
"Rockland" was released as a single on October 22. In doing so, she channels its electric energy into something productive, or even transformative.
Rather than resisting her chaos, or painting it with rosy tones, girl in red makes the point to face it head-on. Her disarming lyrics crash into production from Matias Tellez and Finneas O'Connell, a fluorescent fusion of indie-rock and EDM. She became known in 2018 for declaring, "I don't wanna be your friend, I wanna kiss your lips."īut "Serotonin," her first single of 2021, is anti-romanticization at every turn. The Norwegian singer's music has always been stripped of coyness or modesty. It makes sense, then, why girl in red introduced her debut album thusly: "I get intrusive thoughts like cutting my hands off / Like jumping in front of a bus / Like how do I make this stop?" So I definitely don't want to make a love song of it, when there's people who are dying." "This is actually a disaster for a lot of people. "People are literally like losing their jobs and lives and 'Stuck With U' is romanticizing this thing," she explained. "Serotonin" was released as a single on March 3.īack in June 2020, girl in red told Insider that she'd never make an ode to quarantine, à la Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber's duet "Stuck With U."
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