Twenty-Two and Already Done

The video for 22 landed while I was already deep into It’s Not Me, It’s You, and it hit differently than the others. Not Fuck You, which was cathartic and loud, but something smaller and more corrosive—a woman in her late twenties who goes out every night looking for love that isn’t there, who knows somewhere underneath the drinking and the going-out that the thing she wanted already passed her by.

The song is almost cruel in how plainly it states the case. Not dramatic, not operatic—just flat and observed. The piano keeps it light enough that you can almost miss how bleak the premise is until it’s already gotten under your skin.

If Allen keeps releasing singles at this rate she’ll have burned through the whole album before the year is out, which means a new record might be closer than anyone expects. I’m ready. She’s been on an absolute run.