On ‘Cuz I Love You,’ Lizzo reigns supreme

Lizzo
Cuz I Love You

Atlantic Records · April 19, 2019

I could barely write this review because I had to keep getting up to dance around my living room. I dare you to listen all the way through without doing the same.

Body-positivity rap and pop queen Lizzo’s third studio album Cuz I Love You (her first on a major label) has firmly cemented her in the 21st-century pop music canon. With viral singles like “Juice,” released just a few days into 2019, she has been propelled from small stages to sold-out headlining tours and a spot at Coachella.

Opening with the title track, Lizzo kicks the listener with her powerful vocals, reminding everyone of her incredible talent right off the bat as she belts “I’m crying ‘cuz I love you.” The song would feel right at home in a smoky Prohibition-era speakeasy, but Lizzo’s growly voice and the beat behind the piano still makes the track feels incredibly contemporary.

The album slows down around the middle, with songs like “Jerome” and “Crybaby” giving the listener a chance to sit back and be whisked away by Lizzo’s screaming emotions before being woken up again for the club-ready dance banger “Tempo,” complete with the reminder that “slow songs are for skinny hoes … I’m a thick bitch, I need tempo.”

Other highlights on the album include “Like a Girl” and “Soulmate,” two rollicking love ballads to the self, with lyrics like “Buy my whip by myself / Pay my rent by myself / Only exes that I care about are in my fucking chromosomes” on the former and “She never tell me to exercise / We always get extra fries … I get flowers every Sunday / I’ma marry me one day” on the latter. “Better in Color” fits in this category as well as yet another song in her discography meant to celebrate the color of her skin that is also, of course, a bop.

Like her previous release, 2016’s Coconut Oil EP, Cuz I Love You spans genres, with clear jazz influences, old-school R&B and soul, features from rap icons Missy Elliott (“Tempo”) and Gucci Mane (“Exactly How I Feel”), 80s pop elements and even a few instances of some the singer’s own impressive flute skills.

The album’s in-your-face attitude brings it down in some places, with the sweepingly huge production distracting from the singer’s talent when looked at as a whole. However, it is this same larger-than-life feeling that sets it apart from other recent pop releases.

I could barely write this review because I had to keep getting up to dance around my living room. I dare you to listen all the way through without doing the same.