Olivia Rodrigo and Robert Smith make Primavera’s most unlikely dark-pop crossover feel natural

Olivia Rodrigo bringing out Robert Smith at Primavera Sound sounds like an internet fever dream until you remember how naturally her best songs already flirt with melodrama, heartbreak and guitar-shaped teenage doom. The pair debuted What’s Wrong With Me during Rodrigo’s surprise Barcelona set, marking her first original collaboration and tying her current era even more clearly to The Cure’s emotional shadow. This could have been a stunt. Instead, it makes a strange kind of sense. Rodrigo has always understood that pop does not need to choose between chart immediacy and messy feeling, while Smith’s legacy remains one of turning private despair into something communal and oddly beautiful. The song arrives ahead of Rodrigo’s new album, due 12 June, and the Primavera moment gives it instant mythology. For indie and alternative listeners, the headline is not simply celebrity crossover. It is dark pop’s long memory resurfacing in a new voice.

Source: https://pitchfork.com/news/watch-olivia-rodrigo-debut-a-new-song-with-the-cures-robert-smith/