As the rise of Lola Young continues to prove that it takes a special kind of British chanteuse to capture the hearts (read: wallets) of American audiences, she’s decided to strike while the iron is hot with a new song called “One Thing” (since, evidently, it’s been long enough since Amerie’s “1 Thing” was a hit). As expected, its subject matter is far from romantic or “mushy.” Instead, it speaks to how women, too, can—as Carrie Bradshaw once posited—“have sex like a man.” That is to say, without much feeling or attachment. Almost treating the practice as though it’s nothing more than an itch to be scratched.
Accordingly, the lyrics she offers give Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” plenty of competition in terms of the raunch factor. Getting right into her risqué rundown of things, Young commences the song with the verse, “Oh, hi/I wanna take you on a little ride/I wanna make you feel so nice/I wanna make you feel appreciated when you’re deep up in me/When you’re deep up inside/I wanna show you just what I like/I wanna kiss you slow, wanna fuck you rough/I wanna eat you up, I wanna cook you lunch, I wanna love you, babe.” Even if only for a night (or, more accurately, a few minutes in a night). Her romancing tone drips with sardonic humor as she seems to be echoing the softboy (a.k.a. a more sensitive version of a fuckboy) approach that’s always taken at the outset of a pursuit. When a man-boy is trying to convince a girl that he does, in fact, want more than just one thing.
This subtle mockery on Young’s part is also absorbed into genuine feeling as she lets the ecstasy of the moment take hold, adding, “You know where I wanna be, I want you right under me/Can you just live a little, let your hair down?/I’m screaming for you, I can’t breathe, turn the light off, I’ma wet the sheets/There’s plenty enough for me to go ‘round.” That latter statement, with its body positive double meaning, also ties into the video concept for the song, directed by none other than Dave Meyers (further proof that Young has hit the big time in the U.S.). For the video is centered mostly around Young in boxing attire, which means exposing her much-dissected body—as all bodies are that do not fit into the so-called conventional mold of thinness. And, as Young herself puts it on “Messy,” “I’m not skinny.” But that doesn’t stop her from getting plenty of dick, as “One Thing” suggests via the chorus, “Break your bed and then the sofa/I wanna pull you closer/Everybody wants to know ya/But me, I only want one thing/I don’t even want your number/Don’t care if you got another/‘Cause tonight, I’m your only lover/And I’ma give you that one thing/I’ma give you that one thing.” Here, too, Young subverts what she’s saying by suggesting that she’s not “taking” one thing from this man, so much as “giving” it to him. Like a gift. One that he should be very grateful for instead of acting all hurt that Young is behaving the way most men do after sex.
This is, in part, why the crux of the storyline in the video is centered on Young in the boxing ring, punching and knocking out the bloke she’s “up against” (though more like rubbing up against). It’s a symbolic image on many levels, including the one that has her daring to “KO” a tired worldview, which is that only men can (and want to) have sex this way. One particular scene of Young punching someone in the ring leads into her punch hitting the same guy on the street, indicating he’s been knocked out, so to speak, by her bravado in approaching him not only so unabashedly, but with such unabashed lasciviousness. In other words, what many women have to deal with just by simply walking the streets every day. With a crew in tow behind her as she approaches the man, the scene that follows makes it look as though his flesh is about to get totally torn apart by this group of “unladylike” women. And, speaking of “unladylike” women, the Amy Winehouse influence on her tone and lyrics (and even her partially dyed-at-the-top blonde hair) is also most apparent in a line like, “No small talk, that shit’s too long,” which channels Winehouse’s irritated-with-emotions vibe on “Stronger Than Me,” when she sings, “You always wanna talk it through, I don’t care.” Both women just want to “grip your body over mine,” as Winehouse would put it. No strings attached, just pure carnal abandon.
In the next scene of the video, Young has already moved on to a different man that she has on the back of her motorcycle (the aesthetic of the backdrop looking decidedly “Tokyo,” even though the language on the different signage [neon or otherwise] reads like gibberish that was shat out by AI). Letting the horniness take hold, she places his hand on her tit, not caring if that’s what he wants or not. Because, again, a key aspect of the song’s motif is not just to empower women to act with the same impunity as men in matters of sex, but to hold up a mirror to men to show them how they come across. As Young phrased it, “I wanted to make a song and music video [that was] thought-provoking and highlights sex being both a fun and light thing, not always meaningful, as well as showing how gender roles can be reversed.”
As a means of elucidating how her “body count” is piling up, Meyers cuts back to the boxing ring, where Young’s face is markedly bloodied after “knocking out” (a.k.a. banging) yet another person. These “knockouts” signifying notches in her bedpost, as it were. The boxing metaphor is also all about the “tussle” of going to bed with someone, both physically andemotionally. For even when a person has a one-night stand, there is at least some element of emotion or psychological motivation involved, if only for that brief “session.” The intercut images of people eating food (e.g., ramen noodles and watermelon) also lend a subversive undertone to Young’s commentary on the psychology behind fucking (not to mention those images relating to the sexual innuendo, “I could just eat you up”). In other words, not only can sex be considered as “functional” and “necessary” as eating (or even breathing, to some), but there’s always some underlying psychological motive behind 1) having sex in general and 2) the kind of sex it is.
During the “third act” of the video, Meyers switches to black and white as Young lies supine in a white veil and holding a bouquet of flowers. In this instance, too, there is an unapologetic “insubordination,” if you will, of those old traditional values that women were once indoctrinated with (and, frankly, often still are). The values that insisted a woman was a slut or a whore if she “dared” to ever have sex before marriage, therefore “giving away” the one thing about her that was supposedly the most valuable to a man.
Walking down some train tracks with the bouquet (and a few other of “the girls” behind her), Young’s eyes have the appearance of being entirely black—as in, there are no whites of them showing (or at least not very prominently). The indication here being one of two things (or perhaps both): 1) fucking so indiscriminately has turned her into a soulless void—this being the type of cautionary tale so often told by the patriarchy (see: the film version of Looking For Mr. Goodbar) and/or 2) she’s a demonic threat to society for being so sexually liberated. Either way, she tosses the bouquet aside and does some irreverent dance moves.
Soon after, the bouquet spontaneously goes up in flames and Young steps all over it. In effect, stepping all over those antiquated expectations of how a woman “should be” when it comes to sex. That the act should be something tied to “romance” (therefore, eventually marriage) for her, while men, instead, get to have all the “oat-sowing” fun. Thanks to Young’s crusading, that enduring stereotype is being further broken down.
