Lizzo's Empowering New Album Is One of the Best of the Year
“I swear you ain’t never seen this side of Lizzo,” the Houston-bred 30-year-old teases halfway through her magnetic third LP, Cuz I Love You. She’s right-the new album outpaces Lizzo's earlier releases in its vulnerability, defiance, self-actualization, and sheer catchiness by a country mile-but the real winner is her audience. The set, which follows 2013’s Lizzobangers and 2015’s breakout set Big Grrrl Small World, marks Lizzo’s entry into the mainstream national consciousness. It’s not just that singles like the Missy Elliott-featuring “Tempo” deserve Song of the Summer designation, the whole album begs for Album of the Year respect.
For those who haven’t been following along the last handful of years, Lizzo is an artist with many talents. She raps, plays classical flute, and, as any who have been to her live show will attest, dances her ass off. Twerking while fluting has become a regular, extremely welcome occurrence for her crowds. But You reveals another bullet point on her already spectacular resume: Lizzo can sing. Boy, can she sing. Her rich, raw vocal is on display all across the LP, but it’s especially striking on affecting ballads like the blow-your-hair-back title track, produced by X Ambassadors, or the throbbing “Jerome,” which sees her pleading with a suitor who leaves her wanting to come back “when you’re grown.” (“Poor little baby,” she chides. “Who told you that you stood a chance with this royalty?”)
Lizzo has said in interviews that You, which she recorded throughout 2018, marks the first time she’s felt comfortable belting on record. “For a long time, I didn’t want to be that big black girl with a soulful voice,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “That’s how we were tokenized-the big black girls were always the belters, and I’ve always been afraid of being put into that box.” Not anymore: “But you know what? I’m a big, fat black girl that can sing, and I can rap, and I can dance,” she continued. “I started to embrace how good I can finally sing, and now I’m celebrating that.” She lets her flexible instrument stretch between soaring R&B (“Better in Color”), twerkable trap (“Tempo”), searing soul (“Jerome,” “Cry Baby”), and throwback pop (“Exactly How I Feel”) across the album’s 11 tracks.
But the confidence isn’t reserved just for the powerful delivery, it’s also the backbone of her lyric sheets. You is self-love in bone-rattling, booty-shaking musical form. On the funkified early single “Juice,” she taunts the mirror on her wall, rapping, “Don’t say it, ‘cause I know I’m cute.” The thumping “Soulmate” sees her professing her undying love for No. 1 while the blistering “Cry Baby” welcomes a flood of emotion she’d previously held at bay. “I don’t need to apologize,” she nearly screams. “Us big girls gotta cry.” “Lingerie” is an explicit snapshot, complete with scuzzy beats and breathy atmospherics, for the man on her mind.
The album’s heartbeat arrives early in the form of the churning “Like a Girl,” produced by Demi Lovato cohort OAK. It’s an I-am-Woman-Hear-Me-Roar anthem worthy of the transformative time it releases into. Run for president? Why not, the song asks. Ditch your exes, dream big, and be a boss bitch, while you're at it. As Lizzo sings, "Do your thing, run the whole damn world."
There is something uniquely motivating hearing such uplift from someone like Lizzo, who broke out as a rapper. The genre has, historically, been anything but a safe space for women. Lyrics from popular male rappers often reeked of misogyny. That the last few years saw a number of women breakthrough the A-list simultaneously seemed all but impossible. But Lizzo, along with fellow recent breakouts CupcakKe, City Girls, Awkwafina, and, of course, Cardi B have begun to rebuild the world in their image.
"...[M]y movement is my movement,” Lizzo told Allure, speaking of the gravity of her ascent. “When all the dust has settled on the groundbreaking-ness, I’m going to still be doing this. I’m not going to suddenly change. I’m going to still be telling my life story through music. And if that’s body positive to you, amen. That’s feminist to you, amen. If that’s pro-black to you, amen. Because ma’am, I’m all of those things.”
On the second half of "Like A Girl" Lizzo name-checks some of black women who inspired her and opened the doors to her own dreams-“Lauryn Hill told me everything is everything (We can do it)/Serena Willy showed me I can win the Wimbledon (We can do it)"-and with You, Lizzo joins her heroes' ranks. Amen to all the girls who are inspired to create in her wake.
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