By Danielle Bettendorf, Staff Writer
Last Friday gave us one of the best gifts we could get at the end of the semester: Lizzo’s debut album “Cuz I Love You” dropped and with a runtime of 33 minutes, you have no reason to pass on this.
The titular track starts things off upbeat with a powerful ballad, full of emotion. “Cuz I Love You” talks about what Lizzo would do in love, but it’s the choruses that show her talent is on another level. Lizzo is the feminist powerhouse we deserve and even on the tracks that aren’t necessarily about self-love, you’re gonna walk away from this album feeling like a different person.
On the album’s second track, “Like a Girl,” Lizzo flips the cliched saying and make it empowering. In addition to shouting out feminist inspirations Chaka Kahn, Lauryn Hill and Serena Williams, the song has been praised for its trans-positive lyrics, where Lizzo says, “If you feel like a girl, then you real like a girl.” Between the heartfelt center and the gutting lines like, “Only exes that I care about are in my f***ing chromosomes/I don’t really need you, I’m Macaulay Culkin, home alone,” all of “Cuz I Love You” is completely addictive.
The album’s first single, “Juice,” was released back in January and has become a self-love anthem ever since. With and upbeat tempo and lyrics like “If I’m shinin’, everybody gonna shine/I was born like this, don’t even gotta try,” Lizzo not only shows you how much she loves herself, but how much you can love yourself, too.
Lizzo continues the theme of self-love with “Soulmate,” where she talks about how she treats herself better than any partners that she’s had in the past.
On “Jerome,” Lizzo tackles another ballad, but this time rejects her subject. When speaking to the titular Jerome, the song features all of the modern tropes of online dating and talks about why they won’t work for Lizzo. She rejects this man who is not good enough for her and explains why she won’t let him distract her from moving forward. Lizzo is unapologetically her own person making her own decisions and it is so refreshing to see that in this song where she rejects Jerome, telling him only to come back when he’s “grown.”
The next track, “Cry Baby,” flips the switch and allows Lizzo to be more emotional. Flipping on the phrase “big girls don’t cry,” the song embraces vulnerability and allows Lizzo to belt with everything she’s got.
Lizzo’s name also made headlines once she dropped a collaboration with Missy Elliott, who features on the song “Tempo.” A little more lowkey, the song tackles body positivity and still sounds like something that would come on at the club. Lizzo’s entire album is full of bangers that never sacrifice emotion in the name of sounding good.
“Exactly How I Feel,” which features Gucci Mane, is another track that holds being yourself above everything else. The two artists fit together perfectly and I hope this won’t be the last we’ll see from them.
For “Better in Color,” Lizzo puts everything into this happy song that’s larger than life. Looking at love outside of the boxes we put ourselves in, Lizzo highlights all of the things that make life better without restraints.
In the second-to-last track, “Heaven Help Me,” Lizzo talks about her complicated relationship with love, saying that, “If love ain’t dead, I’ma kill it ‘cause it’s killin’ me.” Both strong and light at the same time, this song encapsulates how much of Lizzo’s music is powerful, but doesn’t drag you down.
The last track, “Lingerie,” comes out quietly as the album comes to an end. While the rest of the album is more upbeat, “Lingerie” is slower and more seductive, a tonal shift from the other tracks. Full of desire, I’d have to agree with Lizzo when she said that the final track “leaves you wanting more.” This is a quick and great album that shows you what Lizzo is all about and she’s only going to get better.
