So Much More than "Messy": Lola Young's 'This Wasn't Meant for You Anyway' Reviewed

The album This Wasn't Meant For You Anyway came out on 21 June 2024 — nearly a year ago. I have to confess that this release completely passed me by; but what hasn't passed me (or you) by is ‘Messy’, Lola Young's breakout hit from the same LP. It's fantastically popular, oozes dopamine, and has now spawned its own Messy EP, which features different takes including ‘Messy - Stripped’ and ‘Messy - Sped Up’. Whilst it's tempting when it comes to an album featuring such a huge hit to discard the rest of the songs as packaging or filler, such a move would be only to deprive yourself of the red-hot rest of This Wasn't Meant For You Anyway.

When so much of our focus around music is on the artist — it’s their name on the record — it’s telling that you might find yourself seeking out more work by this producer first, and looking at the rest of Lola Young’s stuff second. That’s not to slight Young, but the most compelling thing about this album is its production, which is overseen by Jared Solomon (alias Solomonophonic). Each song feels burstingly whole, and, at the same time, wholly different from whatever’s around it. In ‘Wish You Were Dead’, verses purr with the latent power of an idling dragster. Then Solomon flicks a switch and destroys a dam; repressed energy floods the song. Meanwhile ‘Big Brown Eyes’ sets up a memorable two-tone squelch below lyrics like “I wish I didn’t miss/Your d**k, smile, lips, your kiss”. ‘Conceited’, with a baseline like a walloping ECG, eventually folds in on itself, caldera-esque.

Solomon makes the unusual decisions seem easy and obvious: indeed, the only thing to do. Take the chorus of ‘Crush’ — which, after a build-up that rises and rises, is the quietest part of the song. Suffocating Young’s cries of “you noticed” in the song of the same name makes them sound like shouts from down a windy street. It’s poignant.

Of course, it is only because Young is at the top of her game — writing and performing — that there are songs around which to drape this creamy production in the first place. Widely speaking, This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway sees the artist taking digs at past partners which, according to the expository ‘Outro’, represents for her a cathartic process. Her storytelling is piercing and unblushing (“Can you come around, f*** me nice/Pull my hair, sing me lullabies” in ‘Wish You Were Dead’) and funny (“You said you got nowhere to go/Well, you can start with the lift to the ground floor” in ‘Walk On By’). The spoken-word ‘Outro’ also allows her standout husk to seep through in a way much of her singing doesn’t.

Not that Young’s vocals come up short. What’s clear is her confidence: she has no qualms about playing around with her delivery or opting for off-kilter cadences. The artist even changes the rhythm of lines between verses: “You gave me some flowers, I gave them to someone else” (‘Conceited’). Here she sings in pointy staccato, elsewhere there’s a smooth and fast tumble through “and I could have anybody else, but I like what I like” (‘Big Brown Eyes’).

Whilst a lot of the album falls in the ‘brash and bitchy’ category, the second half features some more tender, folksy moments, like when Young alludes to her schizoaffective disorder in ‘Intrusive Thoughts’. Such tracks offer the listener a glimpse of a different side of Young, which, combined with the aggression of other songs, present a remarkably intimate profile of the artist.

Whether or not you will care about all of this and connect with Young will depend on the person, but having fun whilst you listen should be a universal experience.  

Image from Wikimedia Commons