Logical (song)
An up-tempo piano ballad which incorporates a layer of synthesizers, "Logical" recounts Rodrigo's relationship with an older man who used to manipulate her and the resulting emotional turmoil.
Music critics considered "Logical" one of the best tracks on Guts and praised its lyricism and Rodrigo's vocal performance; Rolling Stone ranked it as her sixth-best song in September 2023.
[3] She conceived the follow-up album, Guts (2023), at the age of 19, while experiencing "lots of confusion, mistakes, awkwardness & good old fashioned teen angst".
[15] She performs it before "Enough for You" while sitting on a huge crescent moon prop that suspends from the ceiling, while waving to everyone in the audience, in what The Seattle Times's Michael Rietmulder described as a "folk-pop acoustic run".
[a] Grammy writer Kelly Nguyen opined this was among the more saddening moments, and Detroit Free Press's Brian McCollum called the inclusion of the moon the "fanciest frill".
[24] Los Angeles Times's Mikael Wood called it a charmingly playful exaggeration of the typical pop-star confession, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Kevin C. Johnson believed it was an oft-used trope for young female pop singers but one which was timeless.
[33][38] She makes several hyperbolic equivalences in the lyrics,[39] comparing the way she "fell" for him to rainfall in February and the possibility of changing him to the probability that it never rains again and the sun stops shining.
[33][44] Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield considered the emotional piano ballads the best moments of the album in general, and he named the song as the most powerful and moving one among them.
[28][34] Similarly, Ilana Kaplan of Spin cited it among the scathing ballads that were Guts's standout tracks and demonstrated Rodrigo's versatility as a contemporary star.
[41] Heather Phares of AllMusic opined that it showcased an increase in her wisdom and injected a refreshing sense of self-awareness into the catharsis of "Drivers License".
[46] On the other hand, The Australian's Jules LeFevre believed "Logical" was forgettable, and Vulture's Craig Jenkins thought it felt "a bit mechanical".
[49] Writing for Pitchfork, Cat Zhang believed Guts's ballads were not inherently bad but regurgitated Rodrigo's prior material compared to other tracks on the album, which demonstrated a greater increase in self-awareness.
Lucas Martins of Beats Per Minute believed the gripping intensity of her voice combined with the hyperbolic equivalences in the song's lyrics to evoke a sense of overwhelming shame unlike anything Rodrigo had expressed before—her pain laid bare—vulnerable and raw, with nothing concealed, resulting in a truly remarkable performance.
[39] Writing for Consequence, Paolo Ragusa believed it would perfectly fit a Broadway musical's second act, due to Rodrigo delivering intensifying dynamics charged with both power and confusion.
