Olivia Rodrigo announces new album ‘you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love’
The album follows 2023’s ‘GUTS’.
Photo: Olivia Rodrigo
Olivia Rodrigo has just announced her third studio album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. The follow-up to GUTS is due for release on June 12th. So, what can we expect from the new album?
you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love will arrive almost three years after GUTS and follows an iconic headliner slot at last year’s Glastonbury festival, where she was joined by The Cure’s Robert Smith for a legendary rendition of Friday I’m in Love.
Rodrigo has made it apparent that she is planning a major switch-up from what we’ve seen before. We can already see that she’s moving away from the aesthetic she’s cultivated over her GUTS and SOUR eras. Notably, Rodrigo has abandoned the capitalisation as seen in her previous album titles, and opted for something more mouthy, following in the footsteps of Lana Del Rey’s Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard?.
Although she’s still channelling elements of her Y2K style aesthetic, she’s abandoned the signature purple colour that has been a prominent feature of her past album artwork and has become largely associated with her brand. In a post to Instagram, Rodrigo released the cover artwork for the new album; an image of herself propelled into the air on a chain swing in a pink tea dress.
Rodrigo has been soft-launching the colour pink as her new brand in many of her recent public appearances, donning various shades of pink and nudes. For example, at the Oscars Vanity Fair afterparty, she was seen in a pale pink Yves Saint Laurent mini dress. At this year’s GRAMMYs afterparty, she was also seen wearing a lace dress embroidered with pink flowers.
Additionally, the singer has wiped her Instagram account of all other posts prior to the album announcement. Following this, she has now shared a series of videos of herself planting pink heart-shaped locks across cities around the world, perhaps hinting at an upcoming tour.
Her change in style and curation of a new personal brand suggests a big shift in her songwriting and experimentation. Rodrigo appears to confirm this in her interview back in March with British Vogue, where it became evident that the album would focus on love songs. In the feature, interviewer Mukhtaris was lucky to preview a few tracks, noting a change in her voice, more ‘laid-back’ and ‘mature’ and a slide towards ‘trippy soft rock’ and ‘hazier’, ‘dreamier’ sounds.
Rodrigo elaborated, “I realised all my favourite romantic love songs were beautiful because they have a tinge of fear and yearning in them.” In a newsletter to fans, she also confessed, “No matter how hard I try to write love songs, they always come out laced in a little melancholy.” you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love seems set to be a step towards a more yearning, cloudier and romantic sound for Rodrigo.
Rodrigo has also described London as a big inspiration for the album: “I’ve spent so much time here over the course of making this album. It has a lot of songs that are London vibes, about experiences that I’ve had here.” This makes sense, considering the singer’s ties to British actor Louis Partridge.
you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love has surpassed 1 million pre-saves on Spotify, now making it one of the most anticipated albums of 2026.
you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love is out June 12th via Geffen Records. Pre-save here.
