Recommendations of the Editorial team
Some cultural phenomena suddenly show you how far 2019 is already – “Bon Appétit” videos, Theranos references, the cynical, optimistic world of “The Good Place”. And then there’s Lizzo: the Houston-born, Minneapolis-raised rapper, producer and flautist who, after years of buzz and critical acclaim, broke out in the 2010s with her third album, Cuz I Love You, a sparkling, catchy showcase of her talent and charisma. There was also the resurgence of her single “Truth Hurts,” a piano-driven reckoning with an ex, which climbed to number one.
Since then, Lizzo’s career has had its ups and downs. Their 2022 follow-up “Special” brought the fleet-footed chart success “About Damn Time,” which won a Grammy for Record of the Year; she was featured on the blockbuster soundtrack “Barbie: The Album” and played flute on Dolly Parton’s version of “Stairway to Heaven.” Two lawsuits alleging harassment and other allegations were also filed against her – one by three former backup dancers and another by a costume designer. Lizzo has firmly denied all allegations and continues to fight them in court. In the meantime, she tried to move on: in a conversation with Keke Palmer at the end of 2024, she explained that the experiences had taught her “healthy boundaries,” and released the confident single “Love in Real Life” a few months later.
This single and its successor were not particularly well received on the market. Lizzo retooled herself with last year’s mixtape My Face Hurts From Smiling, a self-assured effort made in a two-week creative sprint. But while that dropped release seemed playful and energetic, “Bitch” – the regular album that continues Lizzo’s string of reckonings – sounds tired and dry. Their biting repartee seems to have curdled, and the all-too-obvious interpolations of older pop hits leave the impression of a cynical grab for distracted listeners. (When Lizzo recently commented on changing listening habits – “the industry has changed so much in the last 3 years. Streaming has replaced radio & I was a radio darling. That’s how my fans discovered my music,” she wrote on the platform formerly known as Twitter – it was a reminder of her music industry savvy.)
Strong moments, weak interpolations
“Bitch” has its show-stopping moments. “Sexy Ladies” is a triumphant Song of the Summer candidate: The piece transforms the 2022 track “Sexy Lady” by DC Go-Go band UCB – which itself sampled The System’s 1987 hit “Don’t Disturb This Groove” – into a get-ready-with-me anthem. The ambling “Little Black Cat” exudes the mood of a hazy crystal vision as Lizzo invokes numerology, astrology and all manner of esoteric practices to bring back a lover.
On the bluesy “Whose Hair Is This,” Lizzo unleashes her sheer vocal power as she freaks out over a strange strand of red hair in her lover’s bed. As her backup singers cajole and a vintage organ hums, she goes from a breakdown about the virtues of her romantic rival to a full-throated scream – until her freakout ends abruptly when she remembers that she actually wore a red wig the other day. The fake-out would have landed better if she hadn’t already used the same trick – subverting her own song’s premise at the last second – in the previous track: the poppy-punky night shift Instagram crash “She Stole My Man”, whose 100-mile spiral about a desired guy ends with Lizzo telling herself he wasn’t that attractive anyway.
The UCB interpolation is terrific, but other references to the past don’t work. The title track takes up the chorus of Meredith Brooks’ guitar-accompanied 1997 hit “Bitch” and draws inspiration from Lizzo’s former collaboration partner Missy Elliott – but sounds more like a dig into the nineties alternative algorithm than an independent statement. Lines like “If I lost some followers, it ain’t a loss” seem a bit too much like protestation. “Don’t Make Me Love U” is reminiscent of a tepid mashup of ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All” and Tina Turner’s “The Best” – to be fair, the song features the latter as well as Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” in the credits.
Katt Williams and the Reckoning
“Bitch” reaches its real turning point toward the end of the lush “That GRRRL,” when Katt Williams defends the star: “They came after Lizzo, and she is unproblematic.” “Too Nice” follows, in which Lizzo takes on her opponents over glass pianos and brushed drums. “It’s always ‘Drinks on me’,” Lizzo sighs at the beginning of the song, only to later growl: “You’d be workin’ at the mall if it wasn’t for me.” (In this economy?) The voluptuous “Like a Crime” follows, in which Lizzo oscillates between anger and indifference toward a nameless con man who “broke my heart and stole my life” as a storm cloud of guitars gathers. As the song fades out, a single arpeggiated guitar remains, its broken chord refusing to resolve.
Was it all a dream? “Goodmorning,” the sunlit closer, implicitly asks that question: It sounds like a single-camera sitcom theme song with funnier lyrics (“You know the way Jesus turned water to wine?/Well, I’ma turn water to Pedialyte,” Lizzo winks) and an uplifting imperative. The tonal break from the previous three tracks is so drastic that it conjures up the term “toxic positivity”. That could be intentional — the song ends with Lizzo dancing into the sunset over an extended outro, presumably while mimicking the middle finger gesture that gets a remix on the cover of “Bitch.”