This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyways by Lola Young

This album changed my outlook on musicians across the world. Lola Young, a solo artist based in the UK, found some fame from her song “Messy” and her feature on Tyler the Creator’s song “Like Him” from Tik Tok. Upon hearing these songs on Tik Tok, I started to see who Lola Young was. That is when her album, “This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyways” came into my life. This album moves like a journal. Each song has a deep meaning and should not be taken at surface level. On the surface you hear beautiful melodies, intricate instrumentation, as well as transitional elements that captivate you in every note. But the lyrics of each song is what makes these songs stand out. One song on the album called “Intrusive Thoughts” dives deep into Lola’s brain and hear her experience with intrusive thoughts and how to move forward with them. As well as the fact that this is the last song on the album which leads into a spoken outro. It shows a sense of vulnerability from the artist which I have only seen with a select few U.S. based artists. When dissecting lyrics within the album, I found that a lot of the songs were experiences that many girls in their young adult years go through. Talking about taboo subjects such as moving on from a man that didn’t heal before moving on and watching this man regret it (Walk on By) as well as going back to a man that you know is terrible for you (Big Brown Eyes) is very admirable for a female to be writing about. It is usually frowned upon in the music industry for women to create music like this. But Lola does not care, because This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyways.