Olivia Rodrigo’s “cigarette smoke” and the Smell of Staying Too Long

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by Andrea Garcia

album artwork

Some breakup songs begin with screaming, but Olivia Rodrigo’s “cigarette smoke” begins with a smell. Everyone is familiar with the smell of cigarettes, right? You could be walking, running, turning a corner, and all of a sudden it just hits you, there is no one around, yet there is this lingering sensation around you.

Olivia Rodrigo explores this phenomenon and sensation as a metaphor for heartbreak: “cigarette smoke” does not begin with a big show of drama or confrontation. Instead, it starts with something small; A lingering smell, silence you used to find comforting, and the feeling of losing something while it's still in front of you. Before the song even reaches its emotional confession, Rodrigo has already made heartbreak feel physical.

In the first verse, Rodrigo creates a scene without telling its listeners the plot. She uses sensory imagery through the smell of cigarettes to make heartbreak feel physical. The smoke becomes a metaphor for memory itself: something that stays, settles in, and lingers long after the relationship has ended. The smells and items left behind are evidence of something that happened with the listener standing in the middle of the aftermath.

“The cigarette smoke

Is a smell that I know

It clings to my clothes

And seeps into my bones

It's a real quiet house

With the shower left on

Five beers in the fridge and the second car's gone”

In the following verses, she explores two feelings, the emotional cores of the song: regret and resentment. She explains that regret is about her, realizing she regrets what she allowed, how long she stayed, and what she let slide. Regarding resentment, this could be directed at the other person: the song explores how they showed character traits of cowardice, being unable to be brave when needed, and even choosing someone else. This gives the song more sharpness because she is not only heartbroken. She is angry at herself for surviving something longer than she should have.

“I regret you

And how long I stayed

I resent you

For not being brave”

The song hits an emotional breaking point during the chorus, the “perfect couple”

has reached its downfall, it has become a role instead of a relationship, performing the

idea of love, with her knowing her part and the other person abandoning theirs when

things get complicated. Rodrigo makes it known that she is not grieving a fantasy; she is

exposing it, telling the listener, “here, this is what happened.”

“I thought that we played the perfect couple

'Til you didn't want the part”

Loneliness is another emotion explored in the song. Rodrigo writes about how the

feeling of being alone is better than begging for someone to “stand up for me”. This

whole sentiment could highlight the general idea of the song. “Cigarette smoke” is

painful, but it lets you know that you're not helpless. Rodrigo lets you know her regrets

and her faults right off the bat, but she would rather be lonely than keep pleading for the

bare minimum: loyalty, courage, and protection, which lead to this outcome: Self-Respect.

“Some nights can be

So fucking lonely

But it's better than begging for you to stand up for me, honeybee”

There is a lot of emphasis on “Memories going dark,” which is what we could call

the final transformation. The song is asking for honesty, and who doesn't like honesty?

So many things can be resolved and fixed with just being truthful. That's the main point

of the song, Rodrigo is asking for honesty, not because she wants closure in a pretty

bow, but because she wants to stop seeing things through a rose colored lens. She

wants the truth in order so the beauty of the memories can be ruined by the truth and

move on.

“Tell me something honest so the memories turn dark

Ooh, mm, the memories go dark”

Olivia Rodrigo uses “Cigarette smoke” to turn heartbreak into residue: the smell

of a relationship that is already over but still clings to the body, the house, and the

memory of the person who stayed too long, with sparkles of hope for self-respect. It’s a

strong way to close out “you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love,” an album that makes

you go back and forth with your emotions from dancing in your room planning your

revenge with “my way” to sitting and thinking deeply with another heartbreaking ballad

like “begging”.

And to share my own opinion, now “you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love” is

one of Olivia Rodrigo's best works!