I’M DOING IT AGAIN BABY! starts in a better place than girl in red’s 2021 debut, if i could make it go quiet. Gone are Marie Ulven’s intrusive thoughts about physically hurting her loved ones and herself, the spiraling anxieties that seemed to plague her every moment. In their place, she’s discovered a newfound self-confidence and some much-needed stability. Maybe, as she suggests on the opening song “I’m Back,” taking some time away from the music industry helped. But mental illness is a lifelong struggle, and while she’s eager to say, “I love being alive,” she’s careful to caveat it: “At least for now.” On her second album, Ulven approaches familiar topics—unrequited love, self-doubt, the pains of growing up—with a stronger sense of self, sounding both softer and more fierce than before. As a queer pop star with a firm grasp on her own emotional failings, girl in red addresses common issues from a unique perspective. But too often, her lyrical ambitions fall short of their lofty goals.

Ulven’s strength as a lyricist is also her weakness: The 25-year-old artist writes about romance and heartbreak as if she’s the first person ever to experience them. On “A Night to Remember,” her giddiness is infectious, the propulsive dance-pop and palpable excitement (“The whisper in my ear/Saying let’s get outta here/Yeah, I’ve never been so light on my feet”) helping to smooth over some of the song’s clunkier lines (“Cocaine and weirdos” is a club descriptor best saved for the next day’s recap text). “Too Much” vividly channels the fury of a relationship breakdown: “House always wins, so I’m taking all my love back/With you I lose either way.”

Ulven writes about her own experiences with a remarkable degree of honesty and clarity, but more profound revelations are just out of reach. At its best, her naivete is evocatively raw. “Phantom Pain” recasts a trite turn of phrase into a genuine moment of self-reflection: “I really didn’t notice the heart on my sleeve/I think I got invested in you and me.” But it’s hard not to wish for more insight—breakup sentiments like “I wish I never met you in the first place” feel inanely common. The slick production across I’M DOING IT AGAIN BABY!—helmed by Ulven and fellow Norwegian Matias Tellez—would be better served with more nuance. Their warm synths and her textured growls call for deeper feelings. In contrast to its lyrical shortcomings, her second album is sonically richer, balancing the delicate piano on “I’m Back” against heavier basslines on “Ugly Side.” Ulven’s voice also extends further than before, cracking into a roar on “Phantom Pain” and retreating into mellower territory on “Pick Me.”

The promising near misses come sandwiched between some egregiously sloppy songwriting. “Doing It Again Baby” is an onslaught of half-sensical affirmations that would sound right at home as interstital music for Selling Sunset: “Got my Ray-Bans on and I’m rolling with the boys/Having all this swagger was never a choice.” After our heroine dons an outfit fit for a Bode devotee—Japanese denim, loafers—the song ups its obnoxious ante with inexplicable banjos. Elements best used sparingly, like spoken-word interludes, take center stage. Rather than allow guest Sabrina Carpenter to do what she does best (broad superiority platitudes) on “You Need Me Now?” Ulven awkwardly introduces her for 10 seconds first. And at the end of an otherwise plaintive reflection on the ways mental illness can hurt those around us on “Ugly Side,” she flattens her own feelings with an excerpt from what sounds like a therapy session.

That’s all lead-up to the album’s strangest song, closer “★★★★★,” where Ulven imagines herself at Andy Warhol’s Factory in the 1960s (“I’m reading up on history/Pretending I’m in NYC”). Instead of fraternizing with Basquiat, she retreats to simple rhymes: “The factory/The fact to me is/I do amazingly bad.” Like so many songs across the album, it’s a concept with potential that severely misses the mark.

I’M DOING IT AGAIN BABY! is the sound of an artist searching for what comes after the initial rush of self-discovery. Ulven has said she wants to steer clear of the “shallow mental health songs that don’t tell the story.” To do so, girl in red must do more than scratch the surface of these thorny but oft-discussed topics. “Can I do it again?” she asks at the end of “★★★★★.” Yes, girl in red is capable of another skin-deep album about crushes and self-doubt. But it would be far more interesting to see her attempt sincere emotional depth.