“What if I cleaned my room and we fucked?” Annie DiRusso asks only the important questions on her new single, “Nauseous.” The song and its highly relatable video show DiRusso, 23, in her bedroom in Nashville. We’ve all been there: piles of clothes everywhere and a full-size mirror that disappoints with every outfit change.
“All I wanna be is everything that you need and more/ If I were to give you everything, it wouldn’t be enough,” she sings amid ping-ponging guitar riffs and upbeat drums. DiRusso parodies the desperation of these moments, dressing up as Marie Antoinette and chasing a guy around the suburbs, only to end up dry heaving on the sidewalk. If Olivia Rodrigo lived in the same neighborhood, these two heartbreak queens would probably be friends.
“‘Nauseous’ is about the time when you’re getting to know someone new and you’re paying such close attention to everything the person likes,” DiRusso tells SPIN. “Like, ‘How can I be exactly what you like, even if it’s not exactly who I am? Can I maybe try on being that person even if it’s not me?’ And then realizing how exhausting that is — how nauseating.” For example, DiRusso says with a laugh: “I’m definitely a messy room girl, which I think is endearing.”
That candor is a huge part of DiRusso’s appeal. She broke out when a clip from her song “Nine Months” went viral on TikTok in 2020. On the platform, users primp and preen to the lyrics “The first thing he said/ The night we met/ Is I was beautiful” then give the middle finger before she sings “And you were right.”
Since then, she’s opened for indie rockers like HAIM, Samia, and Declan McKenna on a sold-out tour (last September, Alana Haim called DiRusso “inspiring” and “fucking incredible” onstage in Nashville). DiRusso is currently working on her first EP, which is due out in early 2023. She will perform live at the Innings Festival in Tempe, Arizona on Feb. 25.
