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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Kitty Empire

Lola Young: This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway review – winningly messy mix of zingers and vulnerability

Lola Young.
Flippancy meets passive aggression: Lola Young. Photograph: Sophie Jones

Mostly addressed to a series of disappointing exes, Lola Young’s second album doubles down on a winning combination of zingers and vulnerability. This star-in-waiting’s flippancy and passive aggression are key to her huffy charm. Both approaches work: Young, from south London and the Brit School via a series of toxic situations, doesn’t mince her wordsto others, or towards herself.

The album’s guitar-heavy standout, Conceited, is a strutting R&B takedown of a narcissistic type with a mosh-pit chorus worthy of Arctic Monkeys, while Wish You Were Dead offers a blow-by-blow account of a fight between lovers so realistic there must be jumpy footage of it circulating online. At the other end of the scale is Intrusive Thoughts, a gentle sing-song that addresses the voices in her head. On the folk-leaning You Noticed, Young mourns an impossible relationship.

Yet however strong Young’s identity, stylistically the track listing is all over the place. There’s a reggae skank to Big Brown Eyes, while Good Books lurches towards Florence + the Machine. Cumulatively, it lacks cohesion. But “messy” is a state Young knows intimately. And while she undoubtedly has the vocal chops to go the slicker diva route, it’s this scuffed vividness that makes her so refreshing.

Watch the video for Wish You Were Dead by Lola Young.
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