What Led Olivia Rodrigo To Deliver a Mantra on “Expectations”

Olivia Rodrigo is known for her confessional songwriting. Even the name of her latest LP, You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love, feels like a comment on her history of witty, diaristic tunes.

But using words like “confessional” and “diaristic” suggests the past. Something happened to inspire Rodrigo’s sadness. However, with “Expectations”, she aims to stave off the bad guys and the bad romances. Here, she submits a mantra.

Expect More, Demand Better.

“I met him at a party, I think he was on drugs / He wasn’t smart or funny, I convinced myself he was,” she sings. While “Expectations” looks to the future, it begins by absorbing the lessons from past duds. And the opening verse ends with Rodrigo blocking the number of a guy she once thought was perfect.

But that was the past. Moving forward, Rodrigo delivers her mantra in the song’s hook:

I won’t settle for a guy with a fake job,
They seem so desperate for loving, but, baby, I’m not.
Gave my heart with zero stipulations,
Now I take careful consideration.
I’m not kissing any boy that is passive,
Their indecision is painfully unattractive.
Past mistakes are just new information,
These days, I’ve got expectations.

Challenge Accepted

She told SiriusXM Hits 1 that her producer, Dan Nigro had challenged her to write a “mantra song.” Nigro’s challenge placed her outside her comfort zone, where she would typically write something more emotionally raw.

Though “Expectations” didn’t immediately connect with her, she came to see it as a hopeful anthem. And one, perhaps, that might offer a way out of the negative experiences that make a girl in love seem so sad.

The chorus describes having higher standards, but the second verse details how to keep them. Rodrigo dispassionately acknowledges she can’t be in a hurry to find love. If she can avoid desperation, then maybe she can avoid the heartbreak.

So I hit the new year like a single girl at a Vegas bar,
Rocking my mini dress with a vodka cran and an open heart.
Yeah, I’ve got hope, yeah, I’ve got drive, I will not lose my faith,
Don’t think my future husband’s at this bar in Silver Lake.

Still, a mantra only works if you believe the future will be different. And atop Nigro’s new-wave synths, Rodrigo says, “A man will be procured / He will be evolved.” Until then, another Cape Cod, please.

Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/WireImage