My interest in Olivia Rodrigo did not occur because she was a Disney girl. I discovered this after, to my dismay that I seem to find every Disney girl. My immediate interest was my mother sending me a message saying she heard this really sad ballad song from some Olivia girl and she thought I would like it. Go figure, she knows me quite well.
I was not the only person who had no idea about some Disney+ High School Musical TV show who discovered Olivia's record breaking lead single in "Driver's License". A song that even if you weren't just getting your license, reminds you of first heartbreak and leaves you screaming the chorus at the top of your lungs while crying in the shower at home alone. It resonated with the world and got it to the top spot on the charts. She followed up with Deja Vu, which followed a similar trend and taught Gen Zers (this is no insult, I am the beginning of Gen Z...) that Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" exists and made you want to go rewatch those Glee episodes you forgot about while cussing out your now ex for finding some perfect blonde girl that isn't you.
Olivia did not deviate from the songs that made her relevant. A personal choice of hers, matter of fact, to have the album stay centered around current teenage "SOUR" feelings and her first heartbreak. This may seem redundant, but I'd like to inform you this stellar songwriter is only 17 years old. If she writes this good at 17, I can't wait to see where she goes from here.
Upon my first listen of Sour, between "Happier" and "Enough For You" it seemed fairly obvious to me Olivia came from the Taylor Swift school of songwriting. This comparison comes as pre-album interviews she mentioned her biggest inspirations are Swift, Lorde, and early punk like No Doubt and Elastica. I had high hopes of a girl who declared her favorite Swift album "Speak Now" (same as myself) so I came in and thankfully she did not disappoint me.
I will say my biggest dilemma with the album is the sonic cohesion - or disruption of it. I appreciate her desire to show she is not a one trick pony, but the punk/pop songs take away from the mostly ballad driven album. On their own, the songs are good, but I don't really like them shoved between the songs that make cry in the shower. It leads to skipping around on an album that is mostly very solid.
The album opens with the Punk/Pop song "Brutal", which Olivia asks for her teenage dream and declares it is "brutal out here". As a matter of fact this reminds me EXACTLY of my emo teenage angst days to an uncomfortable level. She also makes it clear upfront she is not following the typical cookie cutter clean Disney girl act: the F-bomb appears in the first 40 seconds of the album. But hey it is okay Olivia, I am 23 and I can't parallel park either...
Brutal shifts to "Traitor", which seems to have no sonic alliance to the previous song at all which makes it feel like a strange jump. I personally feel Traitor would have been a better album starter, because it sort of brings all the album concepts together as it is the first song discussing her new heartbreak. Matter of fact upon first listen it had me tearing up. I think many high schoolers can relate to "well I guess you didn't cheat but my lord we JUST broke up." Shouting obscenities at your ex from the tissues in your bed wondering how they act like nothing happened and you're dead inside.
We then shift to Driver's License, which feels like a proper shift from Traitor. She's broken, picking up the pieces of the dreams they had together and admitting the whole reason for all the hurt and anger is the original emotion: love. Trying to figure out how she could be such a wreck and he is okay. Teenage love is the worst, isn't it?
We then shift to "1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back" which takes an interpolation from the piano in Taylor Swift's "New Years Day". I actually find this the least compelling song on the album. I don't think the interpolation worked. It made the song sound disconnected from the way she is singing. Also it seems confusing to have this song placed after the "Breakup" while the last 2 songs imply they are already through. The album could have used a different tracklist order.
I will be the minority opinion and tell you I actually enjoyed "Deja Vu" even more than "Driver's License". It just felt like a fully accurate interpretation of the boy. Without blaming the girl, she condemns him from taking everything they did together and doing it with her, as if she is special and new. The bridge is seething and captures the essence of the album and concept perfectly.
"Deja Vu" shifts to her third single "Good 4 U" which returns us to the punk/pop sound of Brutal that began the album. I think it sonically flows better shifting from "Deja Vu" to it than "Brutal" to "Traitor". However, "Good 4 U" is a bit choppy lyrically. She has a good beat, but she is trying to slam too many words into the beats. But I will repeat this song for the bridge delivery regardless.
We shift from the punk/pop back to the ballads with "Enough for You". This song seems to fall to the bottom of many's lists and I have a theory for that. We do not want to recognize this trait in ourselves at times. It was also an awkward shift, but I adore this track. It is blatantly honest. She loved this guy so much that she tried to become whatever he needed to keep him from going to someone else. She finally realized nothing was enough for him, and he'd always leave her wondering she did wrong.
"Happier" is another song I have mixed feeling on from the album. The lyrics themselves don't hit as strongly as the other album tracks. The chorus is kind of wreck lyrically while the verses work better. I think it would be easy to skip over it with other tracks that capture the same topic are stronger.
"Jealousy Jealousy" shifts away from the ballads, and the original topic but Happier feels like a good segue to this as in the previous song she mentioned tearing down the other girl. The song centers around image issues, particularly in an age where we can scroll social media and see all these people living a life that we may not be in the moment. I think it would have been better to put Brutal around here as well as we begin to get a small topic shift.
"Favorite Crime" also should have gone with Enough for You because it topically takes in these topics. It almost sounds like a song you would have heard on Taylor Swift's "Evermore", which is a high compliment. I do not think it hits as hard word wise as Enough for You though.
The album closes with one of the tracks I think is strongest, "Hope Ur Ok". It centers on wondering how some people she knew and lost touch with are doing, and goes on to hoping her fans and others are doing okay. The song's scathing lyric of "unlearning their hatred" gets me every time. When you grow up in a bad place, you have to break the cycle and start a new path for yourself. It is not easy to do but the rewards are greater than anyone may know.
LYRICISM RATING: 6/10
Sometimes the lyrics got a bit choppy and a little on the generic end, but for a debut album from a 17 year old this is fantastic work and shows a great amount of potential. She shows a capability to really describe and portray strong emotions and she can only go up from here.
MUSIC RATING: 6/10
Sometimes the music did not match the way she was singing perfectly well, causing her to try and bunch up verses in a way that took away from the songs. Many of the songs are simplistic piano driven tracks and I think that fits her a lot more than the punk/pop songs on the album.
OVERALL RATING: 8/10
I realize my rating above seems "skewed" but I genuinely enjoy the album despite its flaws. I am definitely going to return to it often and I think it is a very solid debut album that shows a good deal of potential for her.
If you want her new album, make sure you pop in and ask. We can do special orders on most new releases if they aren't in store!
Let me know your thoughts below, and recommend me other things to review at your discretion.
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