I'M DOING IT AGAIN BABY! starts in a better place than the debut of the girl in red in 2021, if I could make it quiet. Gone are Marie Ulven's nagging thoughts of her loved ones and herself being physically harmed, the spiraling worries that seemed to plague her at every moment. In their place, she discovered a new confidence and some much-needed stability. Perhaps, as he suggests on opening track “I'm Back,” some time away from the music industry helped. But mental illness is a lifelong battle, and while she wants to say, “I love being alive,” she's careful to caveat: “At least for now.” On her second album, Ulven approaches familiar themes – unrequited love, self-doubt, the pains of growing up – with a stronger sense of self, sounding softer and wilder than before. As a queer pop star with a firm grasp of her own emotional weaknesses, the girl in red tackles common issues from a unique perspective. But all too often, her lyrical ambitions fall short of their lofty goals.
Ulven's strength as a lyricist is also her weakness: The 25-year-old artist writes about romance and sadness as if she were the first person to experience them. On “A Night to Remember,” her giddiness is contagious, the dance-pop propulsive and the excitement palpable (“The whisper in my ear/Saying let's get outta here/Yeah, I've never been so light on my feet”) they help smooth out some of the song's heavier lines (“Cocaine and weirdos” is a club descriptor best saved for the next day's recap text). “Too Much” keenly channels the fury of a relationship's demise: “The house always wins, so I take all my love back/With you I lose anyway.”
Ulven writes about her own experiences with a remarkable degree of honesty and clarity, but deeper revelations are just out of reach. At her best, her naivety is evocatively raw. “Phantom Pain” brings back a trite conversion of the phrase to a genuine moment of self-reflection: “I really didn't notice the heart on my sleeve/I think I invested in you and me.” But it's hard not to wish for more insight—partial sentiments like “I wish I'd never known you in the first place” are unimaginably common. The smooth production throughout I'M DOING IT AGAIN BABY!—helmed by Ulven and Norway's Matias Tellez—would be better served with more nuance. Their warm synths and her textured growls call for deeper emotions. In contrast to its lyrical shortcomings, her second album is sonically richer, balancing the delicate piano on “I'm Back” with the heavier bass lines on “Ugly Side.” Ulven's voice also stretches further than before, cracking into a roar on “Phantom Pain” and receding into softer territory on “Pick Me”.
