girl in red
I’M DOING IT AGAIN BABY!
COLUMBIA
girl in red’s sophomore album I’M DOING IT AGAIN BABY! is an everyday popera. Following 2021’s if i could make it go quiet, which put Norwegian musician Marie Ulven’s rubbed-raw struggles with mental illness and growing up on full display, her project’s latest work feels less like she’s pausing and reflecting and more like she’s fucking up and learning in real time. Which is maybe why the revved-up pop album makes for a strange listen—one that’s both fun and uncomfortable.
Take the lead single “Too Much,” wherein she rips into an old relationship that wasn’t serving her despite being head over heels. “All I ever wanted was your love, I toned myself down for you / Volume one, almost mute,” she sings as the song transforms from a piano-led pop ditty into something glitchier and thornier. In the following song, it’s unclear if we’re being transported back in time before said relationship revelations or if she's leaning into post-breakup delusion. As Ulven switches cheesily into French, crying “mi amor” alongside cinematic strings and birdsong, it begins to feel like a Space Jam moment where suddenly the cartoon world clashes with reality. “I know this might be extreme / I truly believe we’re meant to be,” she continues. We already know this relationship isn’t meant to be, creating an unsettling gray area of dramatic irony.
Ulven knows how to write a punchy pop song imbued with relatable humor. “I don’t wanna hear about your new love / Something ’bout it makes me want to chop my own ears off,” goes one line on “New Love.” But across I’M DOING IT AGAIN BABY!, that comic relief mostly gets in the way of the songs’ moodier roots. “You gotta be delusional to be in the biz,” goes one poignant lyric on the head-scratching closer “★★★★★.” Again, part funny and part sad, considering its poignancy. It’s an imposter syndrome anthem that, although a sore thumb on the album, is the project’s most compelling moment. “I make magnificent trash,” she sings brightly. “It’s everything I have.”
Where Ulven took lyrical risks on her debut, here she’s experimenting with animating her songs in new ways—with steam-puff beats and random banjo breakdowns. These choices feel more shocking than exciting, considering a lot of these choices feel directionless. All in all, I’M DOING IT AGAIN BABY! seems like a stepping stone to something much bigger, much weirder.
