![]() I think this has got more ideas in its music, sounds more surefooted about what it wants to do, and as a result is a lot punchier. It’s also musically superior to “Drivers Licence”, which was carried by its emotional authenticity but wasn’t a particularly good song to listen to. If the last one was a good encapsulation of teenage melodrama, this is at least as good an encapsulation of teenage bitchiness, and it’s fucking funny. Samson Savill de Jong: This is just delightfully catty. As the expurgation of the feelings of someone in the throws of believing they are the first to ever be burned in this way, it is - gossip-baiting aside - sharp. The smirking self-satisfaction is more feature than bug, and more maladaptive pain than satisfaction in the first place. Scott Mildenhall: It’s more daring to sound bitter than it is broken, not least as it’s less likely to be embraced, but that’s what makes “Deja Vu” more interesting than “Drivers License”. In doing so, she transforms a diary of private insecurities into what all the best break-up songs are: a socially sanctioned display of righteous pettiness. Thankfully, Rodrigo leaves it up to the listener to dwell on the heavier stuff, while she instead keeps the show rolling with her shoutalong vocals and scuzzy synth lines and sly interjections of attitude. Maybe those cute but dorky date activities were never the product of a genuine, unmediated attachment maybe all it was, all it could ever be, was a scripted performance. Rodrigo jabs at this ideal when she points out that both she and the other woman are actresses, a casual aside that uncorks a world of meaning. The main villain here is not really the ex, but the teenage veneration of uniqueness and authenticity, an ideal which can seem like the most important thing in the world until you run up against its obvious limits. Can you really criticize a song for sounding too much like Lorde or Taylor Swift or the bedroom pop artist of your choice, when it contains the lyric “she thinks it’s special, but it’s all reused”? But this metatextual armor wouldn’t hold up as well if the song weren’t so structurally cohesive and thematically sure of itself. Taylor Alatorre: The smartest thing about “Deja Vu” is that its subject matter hands it an automatic defense mechanism. Here’s hoping pop radio has no trouble with the distorted guitar bit on the outro. But the Antonoff-indebted production clatters and tumbles, and the backing vocals alternate between taunts and encouragements. But instead, the main emotion is just “loud.”Īlfred Soto: I cringed when she cooed/coyed her way through the first chorus as much as she uses a memory about “Uptown Girl” as reflexive commentary on her own songwriting. Likewise, I kind of wish it was a bit more angry? It feels like there should be some real anger behind this. Like I said, it lives and dies on all the details. But I kind of wish the song was a bit… more. ![]() And hey, it doesn’t sound as aggressively store-brand Lorde as “Drivers License” did. It’s all very aggressively teenage in the same way that “Drivers License” is. Strawberry ice cream, sharing jackets, playing a Billy Joel song (that honestly I’m not entirely sure why he’s playing to begin with, “Uptown Girl” isn’t one of his piano songs, Olivia). Katie Gill: This song lives and dies on all the little details. I have fun every time I listen to it, despite being far away from dramatic teen relationships, and continue to enjoy watching Rodrigo blossom as a songwriter. The production is occasionally a little cutesy (the background “ha-ha-ha”s, “singing in harmony” kicking in with another voice) but those are minor quibbles. It’s delightfully petty (something I revel in, even as I close in on 30) and cathartic beyond words. I love how Rodrigo turns this on its head by being vitriolic at her uncreative ex rather than the new person they’re dating. You end up wondering how important you were in the first place. But logic never factors into my feelings, and it feels like a giant betrayal when you share vulnerable slices of yourself with someone only for them to take those and appropriate them for their next relationship. Rodrigo reminds me why I love pop music.Īlex Clifton: You can’t own an experience, like playing someone your favourite Taylor Swift song for the first time or showing them your secret spot in the library where you get a view of campus from the third floor. I would be jealous of this zoomer if it wasn’t for the fact that I just love pop music. This feels like the jokey-quirky cousin to “Drivers License” and the summer deserves it. Its release from the tension of the verse breaks my heart a little. Pharrell Williamsĭede Akolo: The drum breakdown was what sold me. Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment.I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES.Email (song suggestions/writer enquiries).
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