Since 2020’s Everything Sucks/Everything Is Beautiful era, Princess Nokia has fully embraced her alt-rock persona. And I am 1000% here for it! She’s fantastically managed to blend her love of alt rock with pink-hued electronica (a la Seo Taiji and Orgy), while never losing her emotional rawness and serrated edge. While there’s something notably “softer” in her tone on i love you but this is goodbye," songs about love lost and self-adoration, the music isn’t “soft.” It’s fluffier in some execution, but ultimately still carries the weight of all of her experiences, never hiding behind the prettiness, but allowing it to viscerally showcase the multiple facets of being a woman in (or out) of love (with others or herself).
It’s a lovely piece of music that doesn’t aim to be profound for the sake of profundity, which is why it works so well as an intellectualization of heartbreak without forcing you to overthink your emotions. They exist and they are valid, and Princess Nokia just provided the perfect soundtrack for you to reconcile all the moving parts of being a human dealing with human emotions even when you’d rather not. The album’s last impression, track “happy,” brings the EP to its peak, summarizing Nokia’s purpose with a hearty, “Gon’ head with your badass self, little mama!”