Lola Young breaks down every song on This Wasn't Meant For You Anyway | Making The Album

17 March 2025, 21:28

By Sam Prance

Lola Young opens up about the meaning behind her This Wasn't Meant For You Anyway lyrics on Capital Buzz's Making The Album podcast.

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It's been a while but Making The Album is back and this time we're speaking to rising star Lola Young and discussing all the songs on her sophomore album This Wasn't Meant for You Anyway.

For anyone new, Making The Album is a Capital Buzz podcast and video series in which we take you, the fans, inside the recording process of your favourite records. To date, Sam Prance (that's me - hiya!) has spoken to Niall Horan, Ashnikko, Madison Beer, Victoria Monét, Chappell Roan and Kehlani about their projects.

Now, Lola Young has entered the chat. In this episode, she open ups about finding her sound, the relationships that inspired 'Walk On By' and 'You Noticed' and what separates British artists from American artists. Lola also gets candid about how she really feels about 'Messy' now that it's become a viral smash.

Hit play on the video below to learn how This Wasn't Meant for You Anyway was made. You can also listen to Lola's episode in full on Global Player or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

To give you a little taster, below are some highlights of what Lola had to say about each song.

Lola Young Breaks Down Every Song On 'This Wasn't Meant For You Anyway' | Making The Album

1) 'Good Books'

"The song is talking about that longing to always want [someone] to appreciate you and to approve of you and validate you and your feelings - [but] you should always be in their good books. Good books is the least of things you should be in."

2) 'Wish You Were Dead'

"You can love someone and not like them. That's a really important thing I've realised in the last couple of years of being in relationships. Liking the person and respecting the person is way more important than loving them...With 'Wish You Were Dead', I actually wish you were dead, I can't be assed with you anymore mate."

Lola Young - Wish You Were Dead (Official Video)

3) 'Big Brown Eyes'

"The deeper meaning of that song is you can do whatever you want if you blind me with the way that you are and the way that you look. You're blinding me and I don't see past your bulls--t because I wanna be with you. And then it also plays with hatred along with that longing. Even though it's a fun song."

4) 'Conceited'

"'Conceited' was the start of a new sound. I was working with Jared, aka Solomonophonic. I was working with my boys and we were testing some sounds out. 'Conceited' felt like the start of a sound that had evolved quite naturally and I was like, 'Actually, this is cool!' The kind of quirky bassline. It's kind of funky."

5) 'Messy'

"I'm very proud of it. I'm always going to be very proud of that song because it's the first song that opened doors for me. It was a very simple song for me, 'I want to be me, is that not allowed?' With all my defects and all my flaws, am I still not allowed to feel like I belong?' Then I recently got diagnosed with ADHD and that contextualised everything and made sense of the song more for me."

Lola Young - Messy (Official Video)

6) 'Walk On By'

"When I wrote 'Walk On By', it was actually foreshadowing the future. I hadn't broken up with my partner at the time and I was anticipating that kind of thing. So even though these songs are masked with that power of, 'I'm taking ownership of this', that song has a sadness because I was still in the relationship. I was grieving something that I hadn't yet lost and that was hard."

7) 'You Noticed'

"I really enjoy performing that live because there's a bit where I scream in the middle. It was a letting go, a closure moment and realising that I just needed to have that moment in the album that felt a little bit more vulnerable and open. The clear part of that song is you still love them and I wanted that to be clear because letting go of love can be really painful."

8) 'Crush'

"This was a point where I'd literally got to LA and broken up with my ex and met someone really new. The point in that song is that when you've got a crush, you feel vulnerable, you feel stupid. You're in that infatuation, limerence phase where you're constantly thinking about them. I knew with this person that it wasn't love. It's just me coming clean that it can be debilitating and slightly embarrassing having a crush on someone."

Lola Young - Crush

9) 'F---'

"I enjoy playing with that promiscuous side of myself and being confident and free. It's not for the kids. 'F---' was just a song that was fun. I wanted a fun song on there that wasn't too deep. Not every deep."

10) 'Intrusive Thoughts'

"I had to check myself a couple of times and go, 'Lola, are you good?' And pull myself out of certain situations. I've been super open about my mental health disorder. I think it's just about being open about these things because there is a massive stigma surrounding difficult conversations that need to be had in order for people to reach out and feel more comfortable about these things."

11) 'Outro'

"I wanted to contextualise what I'm talking about. This Wasn't Meant For You Anyway, the title, a lot of people can take it in a different way. I wanted to be clear that what I meant by it is I don't write any of my music for anybody. I don't write from a place of, 'How is this person gonna think about it?' or 'I want to have a Number 1 hit'. It's meant for me. If people like it, that's an incredible byproduct."

How do I listen to Lola Young's Making The Album episode?

Download the free Global Player app and subscribe to Making The Album via this link to listen to Lola's episode right now. You can also listen to Lola's episode on Spotify, Apple and all platforms. And if you want to watch the interview, you can head to the Capital Buzz YouTube channel or Global Player.