In the years since Lizzo released her debut album on a major label, Because I love you, has achieved a level of household name status that most artists can only dream of. Singles like “Truth Hurts” and “Juice” exploded across all listening platforms and soundtrack movies and commercials. Lizzo herself made it to the big screen, appearing in hustler with Cardi B and JLo. She won Grammy Awards, hosted a reality show (Amazon Prime Video’s Watch out for the big Grrrls), launched a line of shapewear that includes sizes (Yitty) and has been hailed as a symbol of body positivity. Although she has been working in the music business for at least a decade, Lizzo’s ubiquity is relatively new and she is now making the most of it. These days music feels secondary to her. empirelike Rihanna with Fenty.
How Lizzo got here shows remarkable perseverance in an unforgiving world where no matter how much wealth and status you accumulate, people will always find a way to shame you for not meeting a set standard. Lizzo’s shield against naysayers who criticize her body and attitude has been unwavering positivity, funk- and disco-inspired pop tunes, and hashtagable phrases. They have been the hallmark of Lizzo’s early work and appear again in Specialthe recently released sequel of 2019 Because I love you. The LP is packed with punchy melodies and Lizzo-isms, and finds its songwriter processing immense fame and criticism with her trademark confidence.
differentiating Because I love you of Special, Lizzo told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe how she felt “love is at the heart of this album.” Love for herself, more specifically. “I think everything I’ve been doing before Special I was looking for love,” he said. “And it was like, Because I love you It was an almost autobiographical album about who I want to be. When I wrote ‘Soulmate,’ I was crying in the studio and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m writing a song about the person I want to be, I aspire to be. “The truth hurts,” I was crying in the studio, writing songs about who I want to be. And now, Special It’s almost a celebration of who I am right now.”
When Lizzo arrived, she had to fortify her defenses against the backlash that comes not only from being a full-figured black woman in the entertainment industry, but also from being ultra-famous. (The higher you go, the more people want to knock you down, etc.) She has also faced pressure to repeat and build on her success. In a vacuum, Lizzo should have no problem beating her own metrics because, frankly, there’s no one quite like Lizzo. She is a singular entity, unique yet approachable, a leader who is open to absorbing fan feedback (notice how she changed the words to “Grrrls” after the backlash), a born hitmaker who takes risks while appealing to the masses.
at its best, Special lives up to its name with dancefloor-ready disco beats, warm vocals, and an avalanche of Lizzo-isms. “Hey you son of a bitch, did you miss me?” Lizzo greets us on “The Sign” before alluding to the past few years of the pandemic: “Been home since 2020/Been twerking and making shakes/It’s called healing.” TikTok giant “About Damn Time” and “Grrrls” level up the attitude: “It’s bad bitch time, yeah, it’s half thirty / Been through a lot, but I’m still flirting” and “That’s my girl, we CEOs and dancing like a CE-Hoe.” You get the idea. Lizzo loves puns. These lines really want to be part of Lizzo’s finely tuned brand of Whitman’s own celebration, eg, “I’m pulling my hair, I’m looking in the mirror / Baby, how do you feel?” and “I just took a DNA test / Turns out I’m 100% that bitch.”
But I wonder if Lizzo hides too much behind the self-empowerment talk. Via Special, their words seem like slogans and hashtags, ready and willing to go viral with the masses instead of communicating one on one. Perhaps she is feeling the pressure that today’s pop stars have described when they are told to create a viral moment, fast! But make it look organic! Lizzo is obviously a natural TikTok, no one needs to pressure her to make short videos. But the industry’s underlying need to always have more (views, streams, followers) may have obscured Lizzo’s original mission.
Which might explain the choice to interpolate so many conventional hits into Special. You know how “Grrrls” turns Beastie Boys’ “Girls” on its head. There are also obvious samples from Lauryn Hill (on the Mark Ronson collaboration “Break Up Twice”), Kool & The Gang (“Naked”) and Coldplay (“Coldplay”), among others. Lizzo loves paying homage to her influences (particularly Prince, Missy Elliott, and Beyoncé), but relying on tween so much feels too safe. Even the ’80s pop jam “2 Be Loved (Am I Ready)” sounds like it was born from Michael Sembello’s “Maniac.” Lizzo has shown that she is original: why lean so much on what came before?
Special he hits frequently and has supportive messages on all 12 songs, which were helped along by studio titans like Benny Blanco, Max Martin, “Truth Hurts” collaborator Ricky Reed and the aforementioned Ronson. But given Lizzo’s history of razor-sharp, left-field lyrics, particularly in 2013 indie-rap lizzobangers and the most melodic 2015 Big grrrl little world (the latter of which has been deleted from the streaming service) — Special It goes down like a Hallmark card, in the literal sense of “Birthday Girl,” that reads, “Is it your birthday, girl? Because you look like a present.
Although fierce, friendly and very confident from start to finish, Special as a whole she doesn’t really take chances, which can be frustrating, because we know all too well how capable Lizzo is of breaking expectations. Not that any of this is stopping the album and its singer from taking off even further, reaching new stratospheres of mainstream visibility and TikTok virality. This high-gloss Lizzo might have the edge removed, but there’s still no block party like hers.