SOUR, Olivia Rodrigo

Olivia Rodrigo hit the music scene hard and fast with 2021's "driver's license," which is one of my favorite pop ballad heartbreak songs maybe ever. The outrageous success of "driver's license" pushed Olivia to put out a full length album four months later, resulting in one of the best and most successful debut albums in recent years. SOUR deserves every bit of the hype and success it's achieved over the last year and a half since it's release; it's incredibly written (especially considering Olivia was 16 when she wrote most of SOUR), it's simultaneously raw and easy to listen to, and it has perfectly soft and powerful vocals that convey every bit of emotion imbedded in each song.

Stand-out tracks: "driver's license" "good 4 u" "traitor"

My favorites: "happier" "1 step forward, 3 steps back" "jealousy, jealousy"

SOUR kicks off strong with the "I want it to be, like, messy" and pounding guitar of "brutal," which laments all the subtle frustrations of life that might make anyone think "god, it's brutal out here." The mood shifts dramatically going into "traitor" and "driver's license," illustrating the most agonizing and reflective parts of teenage heartbreak with lyrics like "I always knew/That you'd talk to her, maybe did even worse/I kept quiet so I could keep you" and "Today I drove through the suburbs/And pictured I was driving home to you." It's hard for me not to have a soft spot for "1 step forward, 3 steps back" with its interpolation of Taylor Swift's "New Year's Day" (and the not-so-subtle 13 reference in the title), but the soft, gentle acoustic nature of this song makes it sound almost like a fond reminiscing of what went wrong in a relationship. One of the highlights of this album is "good 4 u," the unrelenting, Avril Lavigne-esque pop-rock song of utter spite that was literally made to be scream-sang at the top of your lungs; teenage angst looks great when it has lyrics like "Maybe I'm too emotional/Your apathy is like a wound in salt/Maybe I'm too emotional/Or maybe you never cared at all" (and the psycho burning of her bedroom in the music video? Gold.). "happier" is a wonderfully ironic title for what might be the most heart-wrenching song on SOUR. This song is a beautifully pared back to piano, vocals, and light percussion, depicting the result of mulling over a relationship past and all the good it held but being okay with the other person moving on-- just not moving on to someone that makes them forget you. "jealousy, jealousy" is the one track on SOUR I can't believe never became a single-- it's funky pop-rock exposing the grip social media and social pressures have on society and just how obnoxiously frustrating that feeling can be (and the rock version of this song from the "Olivia Rodrigo: driving home 2 u" documentary is even better than the SOUR original). The last true heartbreak of SOUR shines through in "favorite crime," putting on full display conflicting feelings of regret and fond memories. SOUR ends with the stunning "hope ur ok," telling the stories of figures of the past and the struggles they've lived with and simply hoping they're okay despite having fallen out of touch; this track is ghostly and ethereal sounding, with lyricism way beyond what would be expected of a 16-year old.

SOUR is a whirlwind, but in the absolute best way. It's an emotional rollercoaster of joy, pain, clarity, anger, self-loathing, self-love, and love. With a debut like SOUR, Olivia Rodrigo solidified herself as a multi-talented pop star who is here to stay.

AM I OBSESSED?

RATING:

FULLY OBSESSED

All I Ever Wanted, Kelly Clarkson

Kelly Clarkson is arguably one of the strongest powerhouse voices to grace the music world in recent years, and the best of her heavier-rock pop sound shines through on 2009's All I Ever Wanted. She struck gold a few years earlier with 2004's Breakaway and hadn't hit her poppier stride of 2011's Stronger, so it would be easy for All I Ever Wanted to get lost in the shuffle. However, in my eyes, this is Kelly Clarkson at her absolute best. Enough ballads to show off the softness and range of her voice and enough angry pop-rock music to push the power and sass of her voice to its limits.

Stand-out tracks: "My Life Would Suck Without You" "Already Gone" "Impossible"

My favorites: "If I Can't Have You" "All I Ever Wanted" "Long Shot"

The album kicks off strong with "My Life Would Suck Without You," a cheeky power pop song that is enough to catch your attention and keep you listening. The sassiness kicks into even higher gear on "I Do Not Hook Up" - this one is mostly just fun, but it would be super cathartic to scream-sing both it and it's predecessor.

"Cry" is one of the stronger ballads on this album, breaking up the power anthems nicely with soaring, crushing vocals. "All I Ever Wanted" is a darker pop sound, unrelenting in the lyrical and vocal reminder that "all I ever wanted was a simple way to get over you." If you thought "Cry" was going to be the best ballad of this album, "Already Gone" would hit you like a truck; it has that persistent, thrumming instrumental sound that pairs gorgeously with powerful vocals unique to Kelly Clarkson.

My personal favorite ever since I heard All I Ever Wanted back at 11 years old is "If I Can't Have You" - it's poppy, it's bold, it has full-bodied guitars and vocals that just make you perform it into a hairbrush - a 10/10 pop-rock song. "Impossible" toes the line between ballad and almost electronic-sounding, illustrating the co-occurring heartbreak and empowerment that comes with the end of a non-functional relationship.

Is every song on All I Ever Wanted worth listening to? Probably not. But are the songs that are worth listening to pop-rock perfection? Yes, I would say they are.

AM I OBSESSED?

RATING:

OBSESSED WITH SOME TRACKS

evermore, Taylor Swift

What better time to check off the first Taylor Swift album of this project than on evermore's birthday? I'm one of those people who believes evermore deserved all the hype and recognition that her sister album folklore got back in 2020, with the pair of albums being among her very best work. Saying that I'm a Taylor fan honestly feels like putting it lightly, so be prepared for a fully biased review of this one.

evermore is, to me, the absolute most underrated Taylor Swift album. It might be her single best-written album, and the instrumentals on this album are stunning to say the least.

Stand-out tracks: "willow" "champagne problems" "no body, no crime (feat. Haim)" "evermore (feat. Bon Iver)"

My favorites: "gold rush" "coney island (feat. The National)" "cowboy like me"

evermore starts with the simple yet ethereal coupling of guitar and pared back vocals with "willow," one of the most secretively personal love songs Taylor's ever written. "champagne problems" follows, taking the name of the most tragically heartbreaking song on a Taylor Swift album, illustrating the disintegration of a relationship just before a proposal, with one person left "standing crestfallen on the landing" with "your mom's ring in your pocket." Track 3, "gold rush", is all the glitter and excitement of being absolutely flustered and enamored by a connection with the person that everyone wants.

No matter how many times I hear otherwise, I'll always be convinced that "tolerate it" tells the story of Princess Diana, with lines like "always taking up too much space or time/you assume I'm fine, but what would you do if I/break free and leave us in ruins" and "lay the table with the fancy shit/and watch you tolerate it".

Taylor's collaboration's on this album are some of her best-- from the clever murder mystery of "no body, no crime" with Haim to the ghostly, reminiscent ballad of "coney island" with The National (this is one of my personal favorites and a song I feel is significantly underrated as one of her most stunning metaphors of comparing an abandoned carnival to looking back on past relationships). "ivy" puts a light spin on the story of the secretive haven of an affair and the excitement and fear and all encompassing infatuation that comes with it. "cowboy like me" is soft, mysterious, romantic-- it's a stunning song lyrically, instrumentally, vocally; and the lines "never wanted love/just a fancy car/now I'm waiting by the phone like I'm sitting in an airport bar/you had some tricks up your sleeve/takes one to know one/you're a cowboy like me" is maybe one of the most clever ways Taylor has ever illustrated how emotions can be unexpectedly all-encompassing. "marjorie" is a gorgeous ode to Taylor's grandmother and the reminder to "never be so kind you forget to be clever and never be so clever you forget to be kind"-- and the addition of the ghostly track of Taylor's opera-singing grandmother following the line "if I didn't know better/I'd think you were singing to me now" is simply perfect. The album closes with title-track "evermore" which features Bon Iver to round out a ghostly piano ballad illustrating the sliver of hope given by the simplest things that bring light in the darkness.

evermore is Taylor at her absolute best lyrical composition coupled with some of the most beautifully simplistic production she's ever had on an album. While folklore may have been what led us into this world of a forest of acoustics and beautiful storytelling, evermore is the album that makes you want to curl up with your cardigan by the cabin fireplace and never leave the folklorian woods. evermore is quite simply a masterpiece.

AM I OBSESSED?

RATING:

FULLY OBSESSED