An interview with Olivia Dean on songwriter and producer Ross Golan’s podcast, And the Writer Is…, recently resurfaced on social media in which a question was posed about her biggest pet peeve in music. She exclaimed, “Why write the lyrics if I can’t hear what you’re saying?”

After all, a song is intended to evoke emotion in us both musically and lyrically. Olivia Dean’s lyrics are very near and dear to her and that was made obvious all across her blockbuster record The Art of Loving, with tracks like “A Couple Minutes” and “It’s So Easy (To Fall in Love).”

Olivia is known for emotional vulnerability in her music, with lyrics like, “If only you could see how I've been. If I'm being real…it ain't been the same”, diving deep into the mental aftermath of a breakup. These words highlight the pain of seeing the other person “okay” while your brain is running laps of overthinking, hurt, and holding on to what will never again be.

“And although it's over, I'll always be there.”

Her lyrics often capture this strange space of knowing that love is both high-risk and high-reward. Dean outlines the strong attachments we can form with certain people through special moments in a relationship, preserving those memories in vivid detail through her music. Sometimes, these atmospheres can feel so magical that it almost seems too good to be true. “Only have a couple minutes and we're going back to real life.”

Passionately, she later expressed in Golan’s interview, “Turn my voice up in the mix. I want people to hear what I wrote. I love what I wrote, that’s the whole point.”