Author: Maya DeGuzman
Olivia Rodrigo never disappoints, and with “drop dead,” the lead single from her upcoming third album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, she has done something she has never done before as a lead single. It is a song about falling in love, not out of it, and it feels like a kind of liberation.
Both “driver’s license” and “Vampire” from the previous two albums were heartbreak ballads, and beautiful ones. They set the tone for their albums with grief and emotion. “Drop dead” is nothing like that. It is giddy and fast and full of that specific infatuation you only feel at the very start of something. It makes you want to run around, dance and sit with that feeling forever.
The Cure reference is one of my favorite things about it. There is a lyric about knowing all the words to “Just Like Heaven” and finally understanding why it was written now that a certain person is standing right there.
Ever since Rodrigo’s duet with Robert Smith at Glastonbury in 2025, I was hoping she would lean into that atmospheric, synth, light rock sound, because it suits her so well, and you can hear that here. It feels like the natural next step after “So American” on the GUTS deluxe, with a concept taken much further.
Dan Nigro is producing for this next project again and the chorus has that same shimmer from the work he brought to Chappell Roan.
The music video (linked below) was directed by Petra Collins and filmed at the Palace of Versailles, which fits perfectly because my favorite lyric on the whole song is “You’re looking like an angel on the walls of Versailles.” Rodrigo runs through the palace looking completely free and happy, and Collins’ whole dreamy, feminine visual world is exactly right for a song like this. The outfits are incredible too, as they are always with her.
What I love most about “drop dead” is how specific it feels. The “feminine intuition” line perfectly captures that almost irrational certainty that something is going to happen before it actually does. Those feelings that are hard to explain but instantly recognizable but just makes you love being a girl in the simplest way. Olivia Rodrigo has always been good at tapping into that.
I am very excited to hear what the rest of the album sounds like. If this single sets the tone, I think you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love era is going to be something really special.
Maya DeGuzman | Music and Arts Reporter