SOUR by Olivia Rodrigo Ranking + Review
Stellar, honest debut by quite possibly the strongest new pop artist around.
The theme of SOUR is flatout frankness and rawness, so I’m going to start out with a real one. On first listen, I wasn’t exactly super impressed- I was expecting more of the unique vibe and musicality of the singles and I feel like that didn’t deliver on that front. There were standout tracks for sure, like hope ur ok, happier and brutal, but overall I felt underwhelmed. I was then highly impressed by her single selection, as those tracks all possessed that unique sound and star quality that I felt the other tracks on SOUR lacked.
Upon multiple listens however, I began to realize that this is a strong no-skip album, which is super impressive for a debut as well as her youth, and quite definitely one of my favourite albums of 2021. Although it might be easy to get caught up in all the ballads juxtaposed with the angsty rock tracks and write this off as a sad breakup debut interspersed with some good ol’ teenage anger and nothing more, the lyrics and production are very well done and intricate once you fall in love with it. It’s raw, yet constructed intentionally. Every track adds something different, peeling back another layer to Olivia, not only centred on the big breakup that inspired so many of the tracks, but we see her evolution from an insecure, uncertain young caterpillar into a thriving, mature butterfly. It truly gets better with each listen.
One thing I’ll note is that usually when an artist releases multiple singles ahead of an album, I tire of the singles by the time the album is released, but this is absolutely not the case here, I could listen to drivers license till the day I die and I think that says more about Olivia’s talent than I ever could put into words.
Hence, it was actually very hard to formulate a ranking because I soon realized that there was no track I disliked more than others to warrant last place, so I just had to go with my gut on this one. There are NO bad songs on this album, all are heart-wrenching and well executed. So, this can be alternatively named, She-judges-songs-based-on-their-bridges-and-it-shows.
I tried to consider all elements of a track from originality, production, lyrics and sound. This is also known as judging based on a combination of: my personal taste + how me, an amateur whose only real exposure to music theory is through four years of school band and two excruitating years in string orchestra perceives what good music should sound like:
- hope ur ok
- drivers license
- favorite crime
- deja vu
- good 4 u
- traitor
- enough for you
- jealousy, jealousy
- brutal
- 1 step forward, 3 steps back
- happier
- disclaimer, this has changed quite a bit from the first draft to publication, and I expect it to change ALOT as it always does so keep the slander away please LOL.
11. happier
standout lyrics: “An eternal love bullshit you know you’ll never mean” and “I hope you’re happy, but don’t be happier”
One of my favourites on first listen, this track counts jazzy groves and an incredibly relatable, soaring hook (see the second standout lyric above) as highlights. Where this track fell flat for me was simply the emotion, Olivia’s secretive murmers of wishing her ex was happy but not thriving conveyed a little too well, and so this entire track whispers through the album but doesn’t stand out. However, I do love this track as I mentioned before, and I think it’s very personable, so it says alot about my feelings about the album that it’s ranked last for me.
10. 1 step forward, 3 steps back
standout lyric: “I’m the love of your life until I make you mad”
My original “claim track” when I first saw the tracklist, and further solidifed after Olivia interpolates “New Year’s Day”, a ballad I love from our shared favourite artist, Taylor Swift. This track perfectly illustrates the confusion and illusive nature of relationships and combined with an excellent intro of chords interpolated from Swift, it doesn’t fail to drive its point home.
9. brutal
standout lyrics: “God, it’s brutal out here”, “Who am I, if not exploited?”, “And I’m so sick of seventeen, where’s my f**king teenage dream?”
Olivia captures the ups and downs, angst and emotion of teenagers perfectly in this rock track. From the misleading, quiet string instrumental intro to the screaming chorus “they say these are the golden years but I just wish I could disappear”, you’re always engaged/head-bopping/screaming along to this energetic song. The standout production and searing lyrics make this a formidable album opener and one of the highlights of the album, so again, having it ranked near the bottom is really just a testament to how amazing this record is.
8. jealousy, jealousy
standout lyric: “I know their beauty’s not my lack
But it feels like that weight is on my back”
This is a powerful yet vulnerable anthem that showcases Olivia’s relatability. The bursts of maturity “Their win is not my loss” contrasted with the obvious green eyed monster influence “I want to be you so bad and I don’t even know you” perfectly illustrates the disruptive nature of comparison and jealousy. The bridge is my personal favourite part of the track, the pent-up emotion and thoughts are so relatable and well constructed.
7. enough for you
standout lyric: “But God, you couldn’t have cared less
About someone who loved you more”
Olivia skillfully takes the listener through her inner insecure dialogue throughout the relationship until its eventual demise, but vows to find her own happy ending someday, leading to a resounding conclusion that perhaps she is enough, and nothing was ever enough for her ex anyways. Her talent at taking the listener from start to finish of the entire relationship can be compared to Swift’s lauded track “All Too Well”, which was revolutionary at the time for it’s ability to take the listener from the conception to the ending of the relationship. Although this track may not reach an “All Too Well” level of critical acclaim or praise, it is a testament to Olivia as a master songwriter that she is so gifted with storytelling that this comes second nature to her on her debut.
6. traitor
standout lyric: “Loved you at your worst, but that didn’t matter”
As a listener, there is nothing more cathartic than screaming “You betrayed me” after the bridge with Olivia after letting your emotions run through the stream of consciousness chorus. This is a song that I intially ranked last (the sacrilege!) because I couldn’t relate to it on first listens, but eventually the raw betrayal and hurt that Olivia feels is so poignant that it connected.
5. good 4 u
standout lyric: “Maybe I’m too emotional but your apathy’s like a wound in salt”
Olivia’s versatility is illustrated strongly by this stand-out pop-rock, pop-punk anthem, with a killer catchy bridge and emotive lyrics. The sound takes inspiration from early 2000s rock anthems reminescent of Avril Lavigne, who also pumped out strong break-up power ballads like “My Happy Ending”. Overall, a solid, catchy track that I personally could see being as pop culturally relevant as “I Knew You Were Trouble” when it comes to angry breakup anthems.
4. favorite crime
standout lyrics: “One heart broke, four hands bloody” and “But I say that I hate you with a smile on my face, look what we became.”
Upon first listen of this one, I remember thinking that it was the best written track on the album so far because I could see alumni of the Taylor Swift School of Music written all over this one. This song may be one of the shortest on the album, coming in at 2:33, but it is one of the most impactful. It’s metaphorical nature is it’s selling feature and the fact that she can deliver the same level, if not more emotion than her typical narrative based tracks is impressive. There’s no doubt that this is a painful track to listen to. Additionally, it’s incredibly smart and well-written as if the rumours about the subject of the track are true, she was able to interweave a metaphor and literal meaning into the song as well.
3. deja vu
standout lyric: “Now I bet you even tell her how you love her
in between the chorus and the verse”
This track has my favourite hook, “when she’s with you, do you get deja vu” of the album (which is no easy feat). Youtuber Ashley Ippolito remarked that the repetitive nature of the bridge, contrived solely of all lyrics we’ve heard prior to it illustrates the deja vu nature of the track perfectly, which I thought was just brilliant. Overall, it’s the production, little ad-libs vocally like the whispered “I love you” and Olivia’s country twang of “She knows Billy Joel cause you played her uptown girl” combined with the *chef’s kiss* narrative writing, that made this track score as highly as it has on my ranking. This is a summer anthem for years to come.
2. drivers license
standout lyric: “And I know we weren’t perfect
But I’ve never felt this way for no one” and the entire bridge!!!!
The track that started it all! drivers license tugged at my heartstrings from the first listen (or should I say first watch because I viewed the music video first, due to curiosity that it was trending) as well as what seems to be the better part of the world and most of Gen Z. You can hear the ache in Olivia’s voice and whether you censor the bridge or not, either version hits equally as hard, “You know I still love you” hits as it alludes to the mutual understanding of Olivia’s heartbreak versus “I still f***ing love you”, an emotional declaration. The bridge is heavily lauded and praised but the entire song drives the emotion home, pun intended. It is an exceptionally well-produced, well-written masterpiece from start to finish. Although we’re coming up on nearly half a year of being blessed to witness this masterpiece, it ages like fine wine, the heartache seemingly preserved in a 4:07 gift, ready to be unwrapped anytime you need to feel something.
1. hope ur ok
standout lyrics: “Does she know how proud I am she was created, with the courage to unlearn all of their hatred?” and “Address the letters to the holes in my butterfly wings, nothing’s forever, nothing is as good as it seems”
hope ur ok is the best track of the album due to the eccletic sound and poignant lyrics. It paints a tale similar to Conan Gray’s “The Story” but with a more vulnerable, emotional groove and slightly more optimistic feel. You can also clearly see the fingerprints of one of Olivia’s major music inspirations, Lorde, with the majestic bridge. The bridge is personally one of the highlights of the track for me and my favourite bridge off the entire album (tied with drivers license). The melodic, ethreal vibes combined with the honest, beautiful lyrics tie the groovy, tentative instrumental of the track together. The standout lyric for me, however, if I really had to pick one, would be the first “standout lyric” above. It gives me a little faith in the direction of humanity and puts in to poetry such touching sentiments. Overall, this track adds enormous versatility and emotion to an album already brimming with so much depth, feeling and heart, but it’s in a league above due to the hard-hitting lyrics, alluding to struggles with abuse and identity.
If you’ve read this far, thank you! I’m so ecstatic to see where Olivia is going to go next (if these songs and her unreleased tracks are any indication, the next album is going to be SUPERIOR). Keep streaming SOUR:)))
