We were hoping for Olivia Rodrigo’s new record to be as good as the first. Verdict? Mission accomplished.
We knew she had aged. That she would not write indefinitely about the tribulations of adolescence as only she mastered the art. But here we are, we still hoped that this new opus by Olivia Rodrigo would not stray too far from her excellent first album. Verdict: Released Friday, guts is as good as its precursor, sour.
Two years after being propelled to the top of the pop world at the age of 18, Olivia Rodrigo proves that she has lost none of her talent as a storyteller, quite the contrary. Only difference: her torments are no longer those of a teenager whose sworn enemy took the form of parallel parking, but those of a young woman at the dawn of adult life which she recounts with just as much barely.
We immediately think of teenage dream which closes the album, a crescendo ballad like Olivia Rodrigo has repeatedly proven that she has the recipe. “Got your whole life ahead of you, you’re only nineteen/But I fear that they already got all the best parts of me,” she sings.
In terms of form, we enthusiastically recognize certain elements of his latest album, including the explosive choruses which recall the pop-punk sound of the beginning of the millennium.
One of our favorites, ballad of a homeschooled girl, illustrates everything that makes the 20-year-old singer-songwriter stand out. A catchy melody – the opus unsurprisingly has its share of earworms –, a saturated guitar that unconsciously makes the head move, without forgetting a colorful text, sometimes disordered, and tinged with humor. “Everything I do is tragic/Every guy I like is gay/The morning after I panic/Oh, God, what did I say,” she sings.
We’ve mentioned it, but one of Olivia Rodrigo’s great strengths is her ability to tell a story to her audience with an eye for detail not far removed from that of Taylor Swift. You can hear it especially on get him back!, an anthem to revenge that you have to listen to at full volume. “I wanna kiss his face with an uppercut/I wanna meet his mom and tell her her son sucks,” she recites.
It was an album eagerly awaited, yes, but also with apprehension, because we hoped it would be as good as the first. It only remains to be seen if it will be as resounding a success as the latter. Our bet: yes.