BITCH

<b>Lizzo is letting go to free her mind with album five.</b> With <b>“A Toast”</b>, the opener of <i>BITCH</i>, her fifth studio album, Lizzo sets the stage for a tonal reset: “I hope it makes you happy to hurt somebody else/And when you lose it all, I hope you find yourself... And that you get what you deserve.” It’s easy to picture Lizzo sitting alone at the piano in a dark room as the bass swells and the volume builds behind this cathartic goodbye. She is raising a glass to the feelings and relationships that no longer serve her; she’s “letting go to free [her] mind”. <i>BITCH</i> is a dramatic pivot from the empowering anthems that filled her mantel with awards and landed her at the top of the charts and festival lineups, and that’s okay: Lizzo hasn’t necessarily felt “Good as Hell” for a minute, but instead of leaning more heavily into hyper-positive pop, she’s processing the complicated, thorny situations she’s lived through since the heyday of “Juice”. As she vents on <b>“BITCH”</b>, which has her putting a 2026 spin on the ’90s angst of Meredith Brooks’ single, “You want me to be everything except a human being.” If 2022’s <i>Special</i> and 2019’s <i>Cuz I Love You</i> focused on self-empowerment, <i>BITCH</i> is about self-defense and self-reliance. That prompted some of her most candid, filter-free lyrical work to date, as well as ample instrumental experimentation. She ventured into Strokesian rock with 2025’s “Love in Real Life”, but the epic power balladry of <b>“Don’t Make Me Love U”</b> feels fresh <i>because</i> it’s unexpected, as is the pop-punk pace of <b>“She Stole My Man”</b>. Her rap flow returns with <b>“Sexy Ladies”,</b> which samples D.C. go-go act UCB. Her strongest vocal performances sail over minimal arrangements, notably on <b>“Like a Crime”</b>, which starts with her singing over a slowly picked acoustic guitar. <i>BITCH</i> does have her settling scores—with former friends, first with “A Toast” (“Here’s a toast to the ones who hurt me most”) and then with <b>“Too Nice”</b> (“My come-up changed you more than it changed me”), and former lovers (<b>“Whose Hair Is This”</b>; <b>“Like a Crime”</b>). But ultimately, <i>BITCH</i> is less about vengeance and spite than hope and resiliency. As she sings on “A Toast”, “I’m finally who I said I’d be for the first time.”