Olivia Rodrigo’s Drop Dead: A Mix of the Sublime and the Confused

Olivia Rodrigo is back with her new single Drop Dead, which comes a few months before she is due to drop her new record You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl so in Love. Thus far, Rodrigo has brought us some amazing coming of age songs in Sour and explored different genres from skate punk to emotional teenage angst in Guts….so…what will she bring us next? Well…thus far it’s a bit of a mixed bag.

The success of Guts and Sour lied in how Rodrigo was able to experiment, while still keeping her songs grounded and personal. The tracks felt considered and had a through line. You could follow the spine of the song and get from A to B. Musically, Drop Dead takes you through a sublime musical journey. We start with some 90s era singer songwriter arrangements…think the Sundays or The Muffs. Quickly we soar on some epic wall of sound choruses full of synth and guitar explosions. Musically, the track is both fresh and exciting with its wild tone swings and over the top glam. This is a bit more expansive than her previous work and its great to see her stretch her musical wings.

Where the track comes a little undone is how much Rodrigo tries to stuff into the vocals. Lyrically, it follows the same pattern as her other coming of age stories about love and awkwardly trying to connect and “make out” with someone. This is a bit too safe for Rodrigo for me, but that’s not my main issue. I think she is trying to tackle too many genres in the same track. Sometimes this works really well, like Paranoid Android or Rapture. I think Rodrigo tried to mimic Rapture with her short rap inspired middle verses, but unlike Debbie Harry, it didn’t quite come off. Drop Dead has some very emotionally resonant verses coupled with Joan Jett-esque soaring rock hooks…but an alt rap inspired section really brings the song down. Adding that section to the song creates muddled confusion, while the rest of the song was quite tight.

This track comes across as a very talented artist thinking “now what?” After two highly successful records, Rodrigo is looking for her next artistic challenge…which means sometimes throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks. Taylor Swift went trough a same period with her Reputation record, which was an experimental period until she found an artistic, and incredibly successful, new avenue with her folklore era records. Rodrigo’s new record may be full of both the sublime and the confusing as she evolves into her next era. Even though Drop Dead fund itself a bit muddled, there is still enough artistic highs in it to have me excited for the upcoming record.

Listen to Drop Dead