Tuesday Tracks— “Lacy” by Olivia Rodrigo
Is it envy, jealousy, or love? Olivia Rodrigo’s “Lacy” blurs the line between aversion and adoration for the mysterious ‘she’.
Pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo recently released her sophomore album, GUTS to the pleasure of many teenage girls in their twenties. With a mix of pop-punk tunes and soft, delicate ballads, GUTS cements Rodrigo’s claim on the early 2000s pop-punk sound. The fourth song on the album, titled “Lacy” has garnered quite a bit of interesting attention. Fans and critics alike are going back and forth on whether it’s a love song representing a secret girl crush, or a classic take on female envy. Here’s what Local thinks.
In “Lacy”, the lyrics are dripping with adoration for this mystery girl, starting off strong with “Lacy, oh Lacy, skin like puff pastry / Aren’t you the sweetest thing on this side of hell”? While some suggest that Rodrigo is alluding to personal insecurities, and highlighting envious qualities in unknown Lacy, others stipulate that it’s purely complimentary. Rodrigo makes no disparaging comments about her own appearance, the song is entirely composed of fawning soft words and sweet talk. This differs greatly from “jealousy, jealousy”, the ninth track on Rodrigo’s debut album released in 2021, SOUR.
“jealousy, jealousy” is about just that—jealousy. There’s no beating around the bush there, the lyrics drip with envy, frustration, and defeat. Rodrigo regularly refers to herself in the negative, with lyrics like “I wanna be you so bad / I don’t even know you” and “And I’m so sick of myself / I’d rather be, rather be (oh, oh) / Anyone, anyone else”. For a song on an album titled SOUR, it certainly fits right in, which is why we have to disagree with the understanding of “Lacy” as a song about envy and insecurities.
Where SOUR is clearly representative of Rodrigo’s angst, romantic frustration and feelings of betrayal, GUTS is a touch more personal. Olivia quite literally spills her guts about feeling young and manipulated in relationships, eager for immature revenge, and as per “Lacy”, secretly crushing on a girl.
“Lacy” closes out with, “Lacy, oh, Lacy, I just loathe you lately / And I despise my jealous eyes and how hard they fell for you / Yeah, I despise my rotten mind and how much it worships you”. Falling for Lacy, worshiping Lacy, this dazzling starlet, Bardot reincarnate, with skin soft like puff pastries, is certainly not the target of Rodrigo’s bubbling jealousy, but rather apple of her eye. It is not a comparative song, it is a confession, the kind of confession that brings the theatre to tears during the scene in a romantic movie.
At the end of the day, whether you see it as envy or adoration, Rodrigo is certainly professing something for this beautiful Lacy. We just happen to think it is love.
