SOUR Album Review
This Friday, breakout star Olivia Rodrigo released her highly anticipated debut album, SOUR. Backed by the smash hit drivers license, it’s already racked up over over 60 million streams on Spotify. But is there substance within the drama of it all?
brutal, the album’s opener, shocked me. “I want it to be, like, messy,” she declares a few seconds in. And it is, with a raging guitar riff reminiscent of Joan Jett’s Cherry Bomb. It’s a wailing, complaining track about how brutal everything is. It’s a bold first track, since it might be a turn-off to so many, but it’s so successful at grabbing your attention and making you whip your hair that you can’t stop listening.
Following brutal, we have traitor, a heartbreaker that proclaims “guess you didn’t cheat, but you’re still a traitor.” It lets you wallow in its sadness, with lyrics that range from oddly specific to universally relatable. traitor does a great job creating a sonic atmosphere where it feels like you’re crying by an ocean shore.
The instantly recognizable drivers license comes next. There’s not much to say about it that hasn’t been said, but the reason its relentless emotion holds so much power here is because of her voice. It feels like a catharsis for Olivia, and when she breaks out in “God, I’m so blue, now we’re through,” you can hear each and every memory associated with her relationship, and her voice just might break because of it.
1 step forward, 3 steps back notably interpolates the piano from her idol Taylor Swift’s New Years Day. There’s actually a lot of Swift here, with the line “And maybe in some masochistic way, I kind of find it all exciting, like which lover will I get today?” reflecting the same sentiment from Dear John. This track is a bit less engaging with its bare-bones instrumental. She opts for very simple lyrics, which happens often on SOUR, but it does lend authenticity to the teenage-ness of it all.
deja vu and good 4 u are up next, equally dynamic in different ways. deja vu explores the concept of her ex repeating their relationship with another girl. It’s a summery track through and through, with a slow buildup to a rocky bridge a la Swift’s Cruel Summer. good 4 u, however, is far more direct in its anger. “Screw that, and screw you! You will never have to hurt the way you know that I do” is certainly an apt way to tell someone off, and over a pop-punk track that’s Avril Lavigne-esque, it just fits.
enough for you is probably the most generic song on the album. The sentiment of trying hard to be “enough for someone” feels a tiny bit done-before, but as always, her voice carries most of the weight, and makes this track a pleasant listen at the very least.
happier has exactly the kind of self-awareness that has allowed Olivia to break out so quickly. It’s petty and desperate, simply begging her ex to “Find someone great, but don't find no one better, I hope you're happy, but don't be happier.” The use of the phrase “wretched heart” here is just so indulgent and irresistable, you just want to take part in this teenage soap opera.
A great part of SOUR is just how confessional it is, and how often she admits her flaws. This is evident on track 9, jealousy, jealousy. Olivia talks about the sheer envy she feels on social media after looking at rich people who seem to have everything they want. The lyrics aren’t endearing exactly, but they’re certainly honest. Musically, it drags a bit, and I didn’t find it super pleasing to the ear at first. Rodrigo said this about the track: “There’s this piano in the bridge that’s so convoluted and almost atonal. Sometimes it just doesn’t go with the music and it’s so chaotic.”
The somber-ish favorite crime follows, and it uses the tried-and-true metaphor of love as a crime. However, it’s thoroughly enjoyable because it doesn’t solely rely on puns and similes. She acknowledges that they were both guilty, and claims that she’d “do it all again.” In the context of the album, it’s rather unique, since it portrays a two-sided ending. It’s raw, and she does a beautiful job of admitting that she, too, was an accomplice.
To close the album, we have hope ur ok, which shifts the narrative away from herself. Olivia talks about people she’s met over the years, from a boy who wasn’t accepted by his parents to a girl who had to raise her siblings alone. She wishes them the best in the form of a check-in text, and this might be the lyrical highlight of the album. You can’t really overstate the beauty of the bridge: “Address the letters to the holes in my butterfly wings, nothing's forever, nothing was as good as it seems. And when the clouds won't iron out, and the monsters creep into your house, and every door is hard to close.” This was the best possible choice for an ending, because she zooms out the lense from her world to everyone who feels like an outsider.
Olivia Rodrigo has had one of the fastest come-ups in recent memory, and there have been many who’ve doubted her talent and skill. While SOUR isn’t perfect, it gives all the naysayers something to think about. With simple lyrics and her gorgeous voice, she’s created an album that feels like a page straight out of her diary. And for 17 years old, that’s just about the greatest thing you can do.
C