Olivia Rodrigo’s third studio album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, arrived June 12 and has already drawn a Variety Critics’ Pick: the publication describes the record as “the most musically all-over-the-map of her three studio albums, and to its benefit,” declaring that the 23-year-old pop star is “beginning to look like she might be constitutionally incapable of not turning in one of the year’s most diverting albums.”
The album’s most critically praised track is “The Cure,” singled out as “the finest song on the album” for a structure that builds from acoustic intimacy to a full orchestral crescendo. Among its most buzzed-about moments is a collaboration with Robert Smith of The Cure on “What’s Wrong With Me,” a synth-pop production that makes the musical kinship explicit — a reference the record doubles down on with the sound-alike “Maggots for Brains.” Variety’s full Critics’ Pick review of Olivia Rodrigo’s new album traces how Rodrigo originally planned an entirely upbeat record before “circumstances changed,” producing a bittersweet pivot that energizes rather than limits the album’s range.
The record marks the third entry in a discography built entirely on critical and commercial momentum: Sour (2021) launched her career with “drivers license,” and follow-up Guts (2023) earned a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. Pre-orders for the new album sold out in under an hour after The Hollywood Reporter’s coverage of Rodrigo’s third album announcement confirmed a viral rollout that included purple-to-pink murals across Los Angeles and a cleared Instagram feed in the weeks before release. The lead single, “Drop Dead,” which Rodrigo debuted live at Addison Rae’s Coachella set in April, foreshadowed the album’s harder-edged sonic direction before the full track listing revealed its wider range.
Other standout cuts include “My Way” (a retro synth girl-on-girl jealousy rocker), “Expectations” (’80s-inspired with driving bass-synth), and the closing “Cigarette Smoke,” described by critics as an angry, introspective finale. Rodrigo is set to take the album on the road with her 86-show Unraveled Tour, beginning September 25, 2026. Deadline’s coverage of the album and Unraveled Tour announcement positions the cycle as one of the fall season’s most-anticipated touring events.
The release arrives during one of the busiest summers for US pop music in recent memory. Madonna’s Confessions II visual album premiered at Tribeca before a full release on July 3, while Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter generated Emmy Awards buzz for their SNL Season 51 musical performances — the same program on which Rodrigo herself performed earlier this spring.
