In keeping with the “this is so stupid” aura of “Leave Me Alone,” Reneé Rapp’s first single from her forthcoming album, Bite Me, the second one, “Mad,” is equally as giving of “you’re acting dumb” energy. Except that the person acting dumb in this lyrical scenario isn’t the public or the critics, but Rapp’s sig other. A woman played by Alexandra Shipp in the Luke Orlando-directed video. One in which Rapp channels her inner “Old Hollywood movie star” by sporting a fur coat, headscarf and oversized sunglasses as she walks into a luxury hotel building with The Girlfriend.
Rolling her eyes in annoyance when she realizes The Girlfriend still wants to act miffed about something that Rapp likely found to be totally innocuous/an off-handed comment, she follows the frosty little putain into the elevator, where her removed body language continues to prove Rapp’s opening verse, “Take five, we been at it all night/Not a sorry in the world I ain’t already said/Ugh, Christ, gettin’ hard to be nice/Not a single little curl that’s on your head don’t want me dead/Okay, I get it, you wanna be mad/I wish I could take that pretty little face/And shake some sense into you.” But, of course, since anger (like all emotions) is subjective, that’s not going to happen (just as “fetch” isn’t).
Once the two disembark from the elevator—filmed from a POV that helps lend the video its “90s era” flair (there’s something almost Fiona Apple’s “Criminal” about it, except more polished)—that leads into Rapp’s (or is it The Girlfriend’s?) penthouse floor hotel room, the viewer can see that several party guests are already there. Though they seem to have absorbed the negative energy of The Girlfriend as they all lie around with blank faces until Rapp takes them to the shout-singing chorus, “Hey, you/All of the time, you wasted being mad/We could’ve been cute and we could’ve been stupid/Hey, you/All of the time, you wasted in your head/We could’ve been having sex/You could’ve been getting all of my time/But you were being mad.”
And, as a result of The Girlfriend’s anger, it doesn’t take long for a classic case of a “transference of energy” to occur, with Rapp herself starting to become infuriated by The Girlfriend’s refusal to just get over it. Even in the face of all her attempts to essentially seduce her away from being mad, as described in the verse, “Okay, you can pout your lips/Puff on a cigarette, face all Marlboro red/Slow down, put my finger in your mouth/Pull the bitter taste out, baby, you can have me instead.” But The Girlfriend doesn’t want her. Not right now anyway. This cold shoulder being part of what makes Rapp admit, “It’s kinda hot.”
Indeed, The Girlfriend can’t be blamed entirely for this relationship dissonance. Because, clearly, Rapp has gone for someone who is incompatible with her glib, blasé nature. As evidenced by The Girlfriend’s high-powered, uptight manner (complete with talking on the phone to other “businesspeople” during her off hours, as shown in another scene of the two together in the elevator). Meanwhile, Rapp just wants to party and bullshit—and maybe look at “vintage”-y magazines like Jiggle, featuring such article headlines as, “Life of a Call Girl,” “Showgirls Backstage” and “Girls Who Like to Have Fun” (obviously, Rapp’s girlfriend isn’t one of them). Yet it is precisely this “personality divergence” a.k.a. “opposites attract” friction that keeps a girl like Rapp on the proverbial hook. At the same time, The Girlfriend’s needless anger (or needless from Rapp’s perspective) is turning her into the sort of person who gets passive aggressively drunk, starts breaking champagne bottles and splashes around in the bathtub with other people. Accordingly, all of these chaotic scenes are showcased as the Omer Fedi, Carter Lang and Solomonophonic-produced backing track gets moodier and more crescendo-y (on a side note, two of these three men also recently produced Lola Young’s “Not Like That Anymore”—so Rapp is definitely bringing out the big guns for her sophomore album).
Then, to really piss The Girlfriend off, Rapp starts swinging from the chandelier. Such “bad girl” behavior prompts The Girlfriend to look at her as though she can’t believe she ever deigned to be with someone so immature. But then, that “immaturity” (read: ability to have fun) is likely what attracted The Girlfriend to Rapp in the first place. Which is precisely why, by the end of the video, The Girlfriend’s anger finally begins to thaw as Rapp crawls up to her like an innocent, “how can you stay mad at me?” puppy. That is, until the next time Rapp does something to piss her off that Rapp never would have guessed could be “offensive” or “vexing.” But such is the way of relationships with two opposite personalities involved.
[…] is offering a slightly different tone than that one she provided on “Leave Me Alone” and “Mad” (both being “super cunty” in nature). With her third single, “Why Is She Still Here?,” […]