Lizzo recently released ‘BITCH’, the preview of her new album ‘BITCH’. The song is inspired by one of the biggest global pop-rock hits of the late 90s. ‘Bitch’ by Meredith Brooks became an icon of feminism, betting on very different types of women (“bitch”, “lover”, “sinner” or “saint”) and being a very pioneer in reappropriating an insult.
Lizzo wrote in If we don’t smile and play all the time we are “ungrateful.” If we follow a strict program we are “stingy.” If we enjoy sex we are “sluts” and they shame us.”
The topic is full of good intentions, but so is the road to hell. We’re not hearing too much about ‘BITCH’ because the original song was too well known (it has 300 million streams), plus what was revolutionary in 1997 can now sound dangerously commonplace and, finally, Lizzo has committed the “sin” of being too literal musically.
A clear example of how to recover a song from the past and make it brilliant is what Elton John and Dua Lipa did with their classic, ‘Sacrifice’. The word “Sacrifice” and that chorus completely disappeared in the revamped ‘Cold Heart’, which added new melodic hooks like that beautiful one in which Dua sang “and it’s gonna be a long long time…”
On the other hand, ‘BITCH’ is ‘BITCH’, except for a couple of phrases in the chorus and some verses that refer to their “meltdowns” (“if I lose followers, it’s not a big loss”). There is no further transformation in their great asset: they have simply taken post-grunge production to the territories of Mary j Blige or Erykah Badu.
Lizzo does not shake that complex that she has always had about “sounding like” in this song whose main chorus is the main chorus of Meredith Brooks, really seeming like a version made almost 30 years later, rather than an overly personal adaptation. And the song is the title of his new album. At least it’s not called ‘Blurring the Edges’.
Charging …