The real déjà vu induced by Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album SOUR isn’t the car rides to Malibu or the reruns of Glee; it’s the all-too familiar feeling of teenage heartbreak. And for that reason, I must admit: SOUR isn’t for me.
The album is quintessentially a mishmash of Olivia’s pop, rock, and folk influences. It’s one hell of a ride — going from unhinged aggression (“brutal”) to poorly concealed spite (“traitor”) in its first two tracks! — but there’s beauty in each twist and turn.
Much more compelling is how Olivia unashamedly acts her age with lyricism about prom queen envy and crushed egos. She even manages an edge of snark here and there, like when she complains “And I’m not cool and I’m not smart / And I can’t even parallel park.” Relatable, right?
Not so much when you’re a young adult.
Songs like “happier” and “favorite crime” would have probably effectively ruined me five years ago. The thing is, I had a different playlist to help me cope with the break-up that I thought would end my world, and it was Taylor Swift’s Red. It was looping “All Too Well” and “I Almost Do” until I could finally move on (literally and figuratively) to “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”. And, eventually, it was blasting “Begin Again” at the thought of a love that would not break, or burn, or end.
It’s hard not to think of Taylor when Olivia sing a similar tune. This isn’t to say that Olivia’s unoriginal. She’s gloriously prosaic in her own right, dropping specific references that keep us all guessing. But she’s also still just a 17-year-old with a guitar in one hand and a diary in the other; something so undeniably Swiftian, even without Olivia’s explicit fangirling over the older singer-songwriter.
If anything, SOUR is a pretty good space for introspection. Take for example “1 step forward, 3 steps back”, which samples Taylor’s reputation ender “New Year’s Day”. One verse stopped me cold in my tracks:
And maybe in some masochistic way
I kind of find it all exciting
Like which lover will I get today?
Will you walk me to the door or send me home cryin’?
Olivia enunciates ‘masochistic’ and practically breathes out ‘like’. It’s all so subtle and somber, but it took me back to the crazy, confusing feeling of being gaslit to the extent of settling (“I’d leave you, / but the roller coaster’s all I’ve ever had”). It took me back to those first few relationships, the ones that I thought were love because it was exhilarating; because there was a constant push and pull, like the one Taylor sang about in “The Way I Loved You”.
And then you grow up. And you find people who treat you right. And you realize… Oh my God. I didn’t deserve that.
It’s something easier to admit because we’ve survived it; but for Olivia and the generation who will claim SOUR as their comfort album, they’re still living through their “1 step forward, 3 steps back”. SOUR isn’t for me, it’s for them.
The reason why I will never knock on the genre of teenage melodrama is that sometimes, it’s all someone has. And who am I to take that away from them?
Olivia’s right: It’s pretty brutal out here. But once you’ve let it all out to tracks like “enough for you”, then it gets infinitely easier; sometimes, you just have to take it one break-up song after another.
