Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album, Sour, took the world by storm with its May 21 release, rocketing to number one on the Rolling Stone top 200 albums chart as the biggest debut of the year to date. Individual tracks like “Driver’s License” and “Good 4 U” have also found massive success, the former of which broke a record for the most streams in a single day. And this acclaim is for good reason. Sour is one of the most superb break-up album releases in a long time; it’s got the teen angst, the messiness, the heartbreak — everything you could ask for, delivered in bop after lyrical genius bop.
Sour isn’t afraid to be all over the place in terms of genres, and this lets it capture the full emotional breadth of a breakup album, so naturally it begins with the ‘90s bedroom punk-esque “Brutal.” Is it perhaps a polarizing choice? Yes, but this track, setting the theme for the entire album, manages to capture so much of the teenage experience. It’s full of angsty energy and manages to manifest it in a straight-forward message about the awkwardness of teen years and how misleading the promise of youth is as she sings: “And I’m so sick of seventeen / Where’s my fucking teenage dream? / … And I don’t stick up for myself / I’m anxious and nothing can help.”
The album quickly rounds off into some striking ballad tracks, each consistent and well-produced, but with “Driver’s License” being the real kicker. It takes the act of Rodrigo getting her driver’s license, an anticipated milestone of teenagehood, and turns it into a bittersweet symbol of an ex-love who’ll never join her in the passenger seat. It manages to portray raw emotion, slowly building in instrumentals and volume until coming to crescendo as all the noise is sucked out of the room and she delivers the line, “‘Cause you said forever, now I drive along past your street.” It’s these little details that Rodrigo emphasizes throughout the album that give it its personality and show off her flair for songwriting.
Squeezed neck to neck, “Deja Vu” and “Good 4 U” offer a quietly seething, quickly turning furiously angry highpoint as the middle of the album. Both tracks definitely draw influence from Taylor Swift, but manage to stand apart from the legendary artist by differentiating into dreamy musical landscapes (“Deja Vu”) and adopting pop-punk instrumentation (“Good 4 U”). As the album nears its end, it offers a narrative of healing and recovery for Rodrigo. “Favorite Crime” paints a portrait of Rodrigo accepting her own responsibility in her heartbreak: “Know that I loved you so bad / I let you treat me like that / I was your willing accomplice, honey.” It allows listeners a sense of catharsis from the anger, betrayal, and challenges presented by the album, ultimately ending in the track that says it all, “Hope Ur Ok.”
Surprisingly, Rodrigo doesn’t have plans to capitalize on the success of Sour to further cement her status as a bonafide superstar. Instead, she’s excited to do more work as a singer songwriter — but for other artists.
In an Insider interview, she explains, “I always said that I wanted to do that: Maybe when I was, like, 30 or something and I had kids — I’d stop making music and just write for other people. Because I just love songwriting. I love songwriting more than putting out songs.”
Rodrigo’s notable talent for songwriting is apparent on Sour, along with her ability to build songs to that perfect crescendo — only to break the crest with a beautiful, tear jerking lyric like in “Driver’s License.” There’s no doubt that Rodrigo will succeed in her future songwriting endeavours, and that the musical world will be better off for them.
And for all the “older” young adults wishing they had Sour to listen to in high school: first of all, we had Avril Lavigne and Taylor Swift, c’mon, and second of all, it’s never too late to sink your teeth into Rodrigo’s debut album and relive the pain and heartbreak all over again. She makes it almost too easy to connect with her messy break ups, but make no mistake: Sour’s potent breakup songs might be a bitter pill to swallow, but they also offer a sweet relief.
Image: Olivia Rodrigo
Chandy is a biology major/chemistry minor who's been a staff writer, Arts editor, and Managing Editor at The Cascade. She began writing in elementary school when she produced Tamagotchi fanfiction to show her peers at school -- she now lives in fear that this may have been her creative peak.
