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\n\tProust called love reciprocal torture, Bukowski said it was stranger than grass on fire, and Olivia Rodrigo<\/a> admitted it was fucking embarrassing. Yet on \u201cDrop Dead,\u201d the opening cut from her new album, here she is in free fall, heart on her sleeve, ready to risk everything as hope and possibility flicker over a magical night \u2014 poets, philosophers, and past lessons be damned. The song is a pure dopamine rush, built on heart-thudding percussion and glowing synths, the thrill of romance and anticipation ramping up with each euphoric line: \u201cKiss me, and I might drop dead.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThis could well be the giddiest we\u2019ve ever heard Rodrigo, who wasn\u2019t afraid to pack her blockbuster albums Sour <\/em>and Guts<\/em> with punky, pissed-off energy and wildly relatable, angst-filled anthems. For her third release, it might have seemed like she was ready for a simpler, googly-eyed lover-girl era \u2014 except, come on, we all know she\u2019s too witty, too self-aware, and just too talented a songwriter to go with rose-colored confessions about a new relationship.<\/p>\n \n\tThe title was one clue: You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love <\/em>makes it clear that this project is a complex emotional ride, one that\u2019ll turn platitudes and presumptions about love on their head. There were sonic Easter eggs dotting \u201cDrop Dead,\u201d which was also the first single, like a reference to the Cure\u2019s \u201cJust Like Heaven\u201d and the hazy fuzz of guitars that she and longtime producer Dan Nigro went for, conjuring New Wave gods and the image of a lonely-hearted Robert Smith<\/a> (more on him in a bit). All of it sets up something closer to real life as Rodrigo moves through the full arc of a relationship \u2014 the dreamy honeymoon phase, the first hints of conflict, the crushing goodbye \u2014 to achieve her most complete, musically adventurous album yet.<\/p>\n \n\tFirst, though, fireworks. The initial songs capture that feeling of falling in real time (Rodrigo has said the album is about her first \u201cadult\u201d relationship; many fans think she\u2019s referring to actor Louis \u00adPartridge, whom she dated for more than a year). She\u2019s still on a high on \u201cStupid Song,\u201d a track that seems like a blissful ballad before saturated Eighties chords pipe in. \u201cHoneybee\u201d is a sleepier cut that dips the energy that\u2019s been rising, but it does serve as a tender moment that establishes the deep extent of her emotions. But then anxieties start build \u2014 and if there\u2019s something Rodrigo does well, it\u2019s dive into her insecurities with a mix of humor and honesty. There\u2019s a mopey synth party on \u201cMaggots 4 Brains,\u201d a snapshot of the yearning and neediness that takes over when there\u2019s distance from the person she loves: \u201cEverything feels moldy like the fruit that\u2019s in my fridge\/And everything that\u2019s funny I wish I could tell to him.\u201d The seams come apart a little more with each track, a testament to how perfectly she and Nigro sequenced the project, capturing the downward spiral of the relationship.<\/p>\n