BITCH Review by Heather Phares
After 2022's chart-topping, Grammy-winning Special, Lizzo took a few years to calibrate her next step. She released some singles in her usual feel-good style and a mixtape, my face hurts from smiling, that doubled down on her rap bona fides with features from Lil Jon and Tierra Whack as well as a rawer, more combative attitude. Some of that confrontational edge makes its way onto BITCH, but as she tries to reconcile this mood with the uplifting persona that made her career, the results are muddled. There's a vengeful tone to songs such as "Toast," which begins the album with a dramatic flourish of strings and a glass raised "to the ones who hurt me most." On "Like a Crime" and "Too Nice" (key lyric: "You'd still be working at the mall/If it wasn't for me"), she sounds less interested in getting over her problems than getting back at whoever caused them.
Lizzo hasn't forgotten that her listeners want empowering songs wrapped in retro sounds, though, and she delivers that with BITCH's lead singles. "Don't Make Me Love U," an amalgam of Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, and Bonnie Tyler's hits, uses all the instant-gratification tricks from the '80s pop canon expertly. "BITCH" itself is a more literal mash-up: combining the beat from Missy Elliott's "She's a Bitch" and an interpolation of the chorus from Meredith Brooks' 1997 smash, it's not as fierce as either of its inspirations. Frequently, the good old days Lizzo borrows from include the years of her peak success. With its slinky synth bass, syncopated flow, and body-positive attitude, "That Grrrl" is in the tradition of Cuz I Love You's "Tempo" -- but when Lizzo insists her haters "ain't even make a dent" in her confidence, it sounds like the opposite. Likewise, her sunny cheer on the album closer "Goodmorning!" borders on forced.
BITCH comes closer to recapturing the magic of Lizzo's breakthrough on the songs that feel less influenced by the world around her. A massive sub bass pops in and out of "Sexy Ladies" like a car that goes boom, making it one of BITCH's most sonically interesting girl power anthems; "Whose Hair Is This" is a witty, '70s soul-steeped character sketch that could've appeared on Cuz I Love You; and the smoky vocals on "Happy 2 Be" offer one of the album's best balances of past and present. That none of these songs ring quite as true as "Juice" or "Good as Hell" suggests that Lizzo has outgrown the style that made her famous. After all, her status as a breath of fresh air in the late 2010s and early 2020s was the culmination of years of hard work and songs that finally found their audience. On BITCH, she's trying to find her footing.
