In which to commence with Olivia Rodrigo’s good bomb of a new one?
We could chat about her close-miked vocal tone — in some way cathartic and conspiratorial at after — as she rhymes “blood-sucker” and fame-f—er” in the refrain. We could communicate about the juddering guitar sounds that closes the observe like somebody spilled incredibly hot water in the studio. We could converse about the ridiculously ill burn off Rodrigo delivers in the second verse when she claims the rationale her ex went for her rather of an more mature female is for the reason that “girls your age know greater.”
Titled “Vampire,” Rodrigo’s song — a miniature multipart epic that suggests My Chemical Romance’s “Welcome to the Black Parade” crossed with Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” — is the initially taste from “Guts,” the feverishly expected sophomore album she’s set to drop in September, extra than two yrs just after the instant-smash debut that vaulted the now-20-12 months-old from the Disney Channel to pop’s A-list. And to decide by the song’s lyrics, it was not an completely joyful journey: “Vampire” is about a dude drawn to Rodrigo’s superstar who sets to “bleeding me dry like a goddamn vampire.”
The finest point about “Vampire,” beyond the head-phony piano-ballad intro that lures you into anticipating a sequel to the singer’s breakout “Drivers License,” is its psychological sophistication — the feeling that she’s assumed by means of what this loser did to her and can now realize her very own aspect in it.
“Every lady I ever talked to informed me you ended up terrible, lousy information,” she sings, “You identified as them insane / God, I dislike the way I called them nuts also.” (We can agree that is at bare minimum Swift-adjacent, indeed?)
Co-composed and developed by Dan Nigro, who also labored on 2021’s “Sour,” “Vampire” is a feat of introspection scaled up to rock-operatic proportions. It’s tragic it is exultant it is pretty, incredibly promising.
