When Real Life Begins: Lizzo’s Delayed Album and an Unexpected Mixtape Whisper

She said the album was done—then released a mixtape instead, and suddenly the map changes.

Lizzo’s long-awaited fifth studio album, Love in Real Life, was declared complete in March, her Instagram buzzing with a root-canal-and-SNL-finale sort of day. Yet months have passed, the release remains unconfirmed, and into this silence she casts My Face Hurts From Smiling, a 13-track mixtape featuring Doja Cat and SZA—an unanticipated pivot that raises more questions than it answers.

This isn’t evolution—it’s ellipsis. One moment, the title track, drenched in funk, channels Prince and speaks of craving real connection in a frenetic, screen-addled world. The next, Lizzo surprises with a mixtape that feels like spilled pages between eras. It’s intimate, raw—perhaps a bridge, or a disruption.

Where the Narrative Frays

The album’s delay may be strategic—or it may gesture toward hesitation. Lizzo’s candid confession of despair, shared on stage as she returned to live shows, still echoes: “I was in a deep, dark depression… I didn’t want to live anymore.” That moment, born of choosing real-life over virtual façade, remains a heartbeat beneath every rollout decision.

Then came My Face Hurts From Smiling—not a full album, but a statement, a tight cluster of songs from the same emotional orbit as Love in Real Life. Collaborations like “Still Can’t Fuh” and “IRL” hint at both playfulness and urgency. Is this mixtape a stopgap to silence the noise—or a self-made lifeline?

Between Completion and Catharsis

What does it mean to finish an album but share something different instead? Could the mixtape embody the real love she chases—unfiltered, immediate, unfiltered? Fans debate: is it a sidestep, a strategic drip, or a necessary exhale?

One voice captures it: Lizzo isn’t stepping into the spotlight as much as stepping out, into real life. The mixtape seems to embody that shift—a raw, unpolished pulse between polished albums.

And so we wait—even as the loudest music may yet be the one she hasn’t released.