On Drivers License, one of the great singles of the 2020s, Olivia Rodrigo has been played for a fool by an ex, but the song — pulsing, parched, destitute — remains centred in her pathos. She may have been abandoned, but the person who did the damage is still an object of if not exactly affection, then obsession: “I still hear your voice in the traffic/ We’re laughing/ Over all the noise.” At the song’s conclusion, she is alone, and lonely. That was the Rodrigo from 2 1/2 years ago when she was reintroducing herself to the world as a human after a stretch as a Disney actress automaton. The Rodrigo who appears on Vampire, the first single from her forthcoming second album, has now lived through some things. Her sweetness has curdled.
Vampire is nervy and anxious, a tripartite study in defiance that begins with Elton John-esque piano balladry a la Drivers License — a head fake in the direction of naiveté.
