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Welcome to Switched On Pop. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding.

And I'm musicologist Nate Sloan.

So Nate, one of my favorite episodes of Switched On Pop that we've ever done was speaking with Lizzo about General Monet's Make Me Feel.

I'm a new presenter.

And Lizzo has just come out with a new album, because I love you.

It's number six on the charts right now.

Nice. Awesome. And I want to break it down with you today, because not only is it noteworthy in its message and intrepid in its songwriting and production, it's also had me questioning some fundamental issues about the role of genre and pop music.

Totally. All right. Take me there.

Okay, for those of us who may not be familiar with Lizzo, she is a singer, rapper, and classically trained, floutist.

She has an alter ego called Sasha flute, which is of Sasha fierce like that.

Her music covers topics like self love, body positivity, female empowerment, and sex positivity.

Her new album is I think pretty stunning.

It was met with largely very positive reviews, but there was one that caused a bit of a stir.

Oh, pitchfork.

Classic. Right. They gave it a 6.5.

And they made a sort of interesting assessment, which was that this album was sort of genreless.

And here's how they put it in their words. The shiny sole pop of Lizzo's major label debut is something of a thesis on internalized and externalized confidence.

So much so that the music can feel like a means to a greater end, and that her music performs an important social function, but that the sounds kind of disappoint.

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