Olivia Rodrigo's "Sour" Takes Our Grown Asses Back to Teen Angst

Unless you're living under a rock, over the last few months you've heard Olivia Rodrigo tunes as you're buying groceries, as you stroll through a department store, as you pass a car blasting her music so loud you feel compelled to sing along. And who knows, maybe by now you know all the lyrics to her hit songs, "Good 4 U" which reached to number 1 on the US Billboard 100 Chart and "Drivers License" which as of August 11 2021 reached 1 billion streams on Spotify. Her new single "Brutal" from her number 1 album "Sour" recently topped the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart and landed to number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. Although it it is unlikely the track will receive the same accolades as "Drivers License" it is the first and one of the most brutally honest tracks on the 11 track album.

Similar to artists like Beyonce who turned lemons into Grammy-award winning album "Lemonade" and Adele who turned the worst heartbreak of her life into Grammy-award winning "21," which was one of the best selling albums of all time; "Sour" is based on a tumultuous time in Rodrigo's life. Each song takes us through a chapter of a heart-wrenching romance followed by an inevitable breakup which just so happens to transpire during a rocky time in anyone's life: their teens. The punk rock track, "Brutal" is where we get better acquainted with Rodrigo's agony. She's insecure, hates how she's perceived, loves people she doesn't like, and is holding onto a broken heart and broken ego. It's the type of song you'd imagine Rodrigo is singing in her bedroom with the door locked with tears streaming down her eyes with eyeliner dripping down. It's the type of song you'd discover in the 90s about teenage angst, the type of song you'd find in any 90s film focused on high school teens. The song also brings to mind early 00's punk bands like Paramore. Rodrigo's ode to 90s punk rock in the music video shows that she truly is living in the wrong generation.

Rodrigo slows things down on the heartbreaking track, "Traitor." She tells her lover that he betrayed her by dating someone so soon after their breakup. Unlike in Brutal where she lists the things she doesn't like about herself, in this song, she doesn't doubt herself, she holds her own and allows herself to own all of her emotions. "1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back" takes a deep dive into just how emotional unstable her relationship with her ex partner was. The melody resembles Taylor Swift's 2017 track "New Year's Day." Rodrigo is not afraid to be vulnerable here and allowing the listener to see inside her broken heart, telling the tale about how no matter how much you love someone, you may never receive that love back. In "Deja Vu" from the very first line to the end, you immediately feel like you are being taken through a dream. Rodrigo reminisces about all of the things she did with her former lover and sings about how he is probably doing the same thing with his new girlfriend. This is the first track that does not detail her heartbreak but instead acceptance that he will never truly find anyone like her, no matter how hard he tries. One of the more stronger tracks, "Enough 4 U" relies on acoustic guitar and toward the end of the song, you can almost feel the tears rolling down Rodrigo's cheeks as she sings about never being enough for the one she loved. You can hear Rodrigo's voice cracking and a sniffle in the last bridge.

"Good 4 U" which once again is an ode to 90s rock, takes us for a joy ride as Rodrigo stresses over her ex moving on quicker than her, as she comically tells him she has been a mess. It's one of the strongest tracks on the album because Rodrigo is allowing herself to get lost in the music, allowing us to lose ourselves in her little punk rock teen angst world. "Jealousy, Jealousy" takes us into her deepest insecurities, and provides a fun beat to lyrics that brutally honest, and refreshingly messy. What "Good 4 U", "Jealousy," Jealousy" and "Brutal" have in common is that they are a sloppy, honest, and unfiltered look into the brain of an insecure, heartbroken 17-year-old who just like us, is figuring it all out.

Not every track are gems though, some like, "Happier" "Favorite Crime" and "Hope Ur Ok" and dare I say, "Drivers License" are more like album fillers and songs that don't quite have it. Those tracks might be catchy, but are missing something. What that is, must be found by the singer herself, perhaps there were other songs that could have filled the album, that she found too vulnerable. But nevertheless, Rodrigo has a way of making you feel less alone in your own insecurities and vulnerabilities, allowing herself herself to say out loud what might not be cool or PC to say but that exists in all of us. All of us have a little bit of "Sour" in our veins.