girli was born and raised in London, England, where she discovered her interest in making music and began to hone her craft. She had been recording music and performing since a young age before becoming the incredible artist we know today, girli. She developed her signature sound and aesthetic from the start of her solo career with pop rock soundscapes and primarily pink single covers, where she questioned authority and the patriarchy. In between amazing EP releases, she’s put out three incredible albums: Odd One Out, Matriarchy, and now it’s just my opinion.

Blue Sky

The album begins with girli reflecting on her life so far, and how things don’t actually seem to be going the way she expected them to turn out. She feels overwhelmed in a whirlpool of confusion and all she wants is to break free. Life is going so fast, everything is happening all at once, and she expresses her need to stop and take a breath every once in a while. Despite the lyrics of the verses, the direction of the song’s production is upbeat and symbolizes the positive vibes of the “blue sky” girli sings about. This is supplemented by the synths ranging in depth and pitch, and how they sound like the color blue.

Slap On The Wrist

“Slap On The Wrist” is an idiom that defines the punishment men receive when they harm women. They constantly get away with what women fear they will do to them, and girli flips the scripts and puts men in the terrifying situations they put women in. She metaphorically gives them a taste of their own medicine, and asks them how they would feel if no one believed them like how women’s feelings are disregarded. “Slap On The Wrist” covers multiple genres that all work perfectly together. The combination of pop, alternative, and rock create an instrumentation style that expresses the anger girli has while maintaining the overall sound of the record.

Pedestal

The third track of it’s just my opinion details how it feels to hype someone up in your head without fully knowing the kind of person they are. When you like someone, you instinctively get your hopes up about them because you want to be with them, and you want them to be the best significant other. girli sings about knowing the consequences of doing this, because her crush could end up being nothing like she thought, but she feels tempted to “put [them] on a pedestal” anyway. The beginning of “Pedestal” sounds like what can be described as a bubbly piano ballad before it delves into more of a pop rock soundscape, which girli is excellent at producing.

Don’t Make Me Cry

Growing up surrounded by the broken branches of her family tree, girli is afraid she is next to fall in love with someone that will do her wrong. She wants to find the person she is meant to be with, and is nervous in her search, as she doesn’t want to experience what her loved ones had to. Listening to “Don’t Make Me Cry” transports you to the 90s, as you sway to the intertwining guitar chords and synths that defined the love songs of that decade. In addition to this, the track feels like autumn as a song, with its tempo and stylistic choice of instrumentation. girli also has an amazing singing voice, which perfectly compliments this kind of music.

Bones

girli is once again puzzled, this time with her love life. She is friends with someone she shares a deep connection with, but she is unsure if this person actually likes her back. She receives mixed signals, causing her to believe if a relationship with this person is possible, because she is unsure how they feel about her in return. An ethereal drum beat and matching synths fill up the soundscape and atmosphere of this track like stars in the sky, supplemented by 80s sound effects and vibes. The harmonies and high notes girli provides are incredible and show how amazing of an artist she is, as well as on the rest of the album.

Lifestyle

The tension builds with growing guitar strums in the first verse as girli reminiscences on the relationship she had with an ex-girlfriend, who she was in love with and created many meaningful memories with. Now, girli is heartbroken seeing that her former partner is with a man, and she insinuates that she was only temporarily attracted to other women, but girli knows this is untrue. She urges her ex to remember the times they had together, and not to forget the love they had for one another. When the chorus hits, it comes in like a shooting star with its encapsulating electric guitar arrangements and aligning drums, alongside the emotional harmonies. The rest of “Lifestyle” incorporates indie elements, making it a sonically diverse masterpiece.

Romantic Sadness

We get to hear enchanting 80s synth again in “Romantic Sadness”, as the lyrics lay out the timeline of how long girli has been broken and lonely without her former significant other that she deeply loved. She sings about having been fixated on this for so long that she feels as though she is in a perpetual state of melancholy that she cannot break out of. Listening to the production styles switch between the verses and bridge and the choruses makes you feel like you’re listening to two different songs while only listening to one, showing how each section of this track was carefully crafted musically and vocally.

Squirm

Based on the topics of being hesitant towards new romantic relationships throughout the previous tracks of this album, girli directly talks to someone about how it’s unfair that a person she likes is so entrancing. They have bypassed her wavering opinions of love, as she describes how head over heels she is for them. The way girli feels is reflected in the production and instrumentation of the song, with its static electric guitar chords that invigorate “Squirm” like they’re strikes of lightning. Paired with the layered vocal tracks, this creates the same vibe and defines the song as another pop rock hit.

Light In The Dark

“Light In The Dark” is the epitome of the saying “no strings attached”. girli stresses that she is open to relationships, but as long as romantic feelings are not involved, a theme that was preceded by her afflictions with love detailed throughout the rest of it’s just my opinion. This track sounds like a song you would hear at a club in the 2010s, with the light beams matching the electric synths, but still maintains a modern, hyperpop-esque feel that matches the rest of the album; cool and unique vocal effects also portray this, and girli’s outstanding vocals provide a sense of musical nostalgia.

Traces

girli mourns a relationship upon an isolating breakup in the foreground of reverberated synths and intergalactic sound effects. She depicts the well known feeling that things aren’t the same after a breakup, and it feels like they can never be the same again. When you lose your person, you feel as though your life changes forever, and for the worse. Listening to the infectious melodies and soundscapes of “Traces” feels like you’re dancing and having fun on different planets throughout the solar system, despite the melancholy lyrics. Additionally, the spoken outro is a clever callback of girli’s earlier work from her discography.

Better Undressed

The voicemail that takes place at the beginning of the penultimate track of it’s just my opinion, “Better Undressed”, defines what this song is about. In a relationship that girli knows isn’t beneficial for either party, she prefers passion over romance, as they don’t often work out when feelings are involved. The dreamy vibes of this song make it so fun to listen to, with its virtuoso mesh of pop and alternative elements. Throughout the album, girli has effortlessly made fantastic hits with the perfect implementation of rock and decade-bending elements, showing just how talented and extraordinary of an artist she is.

The Answer

For the last track of the album, girli reflects on her teen years where she developed a crush that completely took over her life. She sings about how she thought of her all the time and looked forward to seeing her at school. “The Answer” sounds like the song of a soundtrack that plays during the end credits of a coming-of-age movie, reflected in the lyrics with optimistic synths and sparkly sound effects. It’s the perfect way to end such an incredible record.

girli has reached pop rock perfection with her new record, making an album that contains impactful lyrics, with creative production design spanning different pivotal points of time for the aforementioned genres. Her songs of love, loss, and yearning are so relatable and show her ability to connect with the audience she’s built over the past eleven years she has been a solo artist. A true virtuoso, her singing, songwriting, and musician skills are present not only in it’s just my opinion, but also in the remainder of her diverse and spellbinding discography. girli is a one-of-a-kind artist, and I’m very grateful to have been a fan of her’s since the beginning of her career.

Written By Ashley Adams

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