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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?
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