Meaning of Can’t Catch Me Now by Olivia Rodrigo
The movie series known as The Hunger Games recently had its fifth installment, an outing subtitled “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes”, come out on 5 November 2023. A couple of days prior, on November 3rd, the second single from the film’s soundtrack, Olivia Rodrigo’s Can’t Catch Me Now, was released. This is a song which the director of the movie itself, Francis Lawrence, was heavily involved in conceptualizing, self-admittedly grilling Olivia on the plot of the film in the process. And Rodrigo has verified that what’s being put forth is from the perspective of one of its main characters, “Lucy Gray Baird”.
The Lyrics
So even from the first verse, it can be gleaned that the lyrics are such that fans of the film would likely appreciate them more than the average listener. But that said, with Can’t Catch Me Now being composed by Rodrigo and her regular songwriting partner, Dan Nigro (who also acted as its producer), this track can be taken, to some extent, as standard Olivia fare. For instance, the songstress tends to regularly harp on troubled romantic relationships. And even though the nature of the association between the singer and the person she’s singing to is never specified, it can easily be imagined that they are exes.
But there’s more to it than that [spoiler alert ahead]. The character of Lucy Gray Baird does in fact vanish near the conclusion of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. And she does so, most notably, on another character called “Coryo Snow”, who reads like he may be a potential romantic interest, i.e. if he wasn’t compelled to try to kill her.
So when Olivia sings about not being able to get caught, she means that literally within the context of the film, i.e. Lucy disappearing in such a way that no one knows of her whereabouts. But that said, the song also implies that she’s going to come back, more vengeful than ever, and therefore her opps or whoever it is she’s singing to should be prepared to deal with the consequences. And to note, The Hunger Games is a very violent series whereas protagonists are often tasked with killing each other.
So with that in mind, it can be argued that the addressee comes off as sort of a frenemy, i.e. someone Olivia may have been cool with in the past though definitely not anymore. But really reading in between the lines, more to the point is that this person is someone who slept on Rodrigo and abused her. So now it’s as if she’s exerting control over the situation, warning this individual that his time, at her hands, is forthcoming.
Other Facts
Olivia Rodrigo first announced this song on 1 November 2023, and its music video was directed by Leonn Ward.
Can’t Catch Me Now peaked at number 3 on the UK Singles Chart, but it failed to break the top half of the Billboard Hot 100. So that makes it, as of this writing, Rodrigo’s lowest-charting standard single on the Hot 100.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (Music From and Inspired By), from which this track was derived, is a product of Geffen Records.
