Olivia Rodrigo’s sophomore album is quite literally a punch in the gut. As I listened to her opening song on the album “Guts,” “all american b—h,” I immediately thought Olivia returned back to her old habits of writing Disney-rated acoustic songs as she sings the lyrics, “I am light as a feather; I’m stiff as a board.” It was only when I re-listened to the song that the acoustic verses talk about standard qualities, like being an optimist and having integrity and class. The chorus could not be more different. The punk-rock twist caught me so off guard and had me feeling like Lindsey Lohan in the early 2000s. Seriously.
The duality of the acoustic verses illustrating the ‘lady-like” mannerisms young girls are expected to completely collide with the hardcore chorus that symbolize the overall stupidity of what women are expected to behave like. It’s genius. “lacy” is a beautiful song that describes the “sweetest torture” of how it feels to be jealous yet in complete awe of another girl’s appearance. There have been a lot of rumors that Rodrigo wrote this song about Gracie Abrams, another young and uprising artist who produces very similar music. Now that I listen to it again, the dots connect why it would be about Abrams. Besides the physical descriptions that match Abrams, it makes sense why it would be here because for the reason Gracie went on tour with Taylor Swift, and not Rodrigo, who is a long-time fan of Swift.
Still, It feels comforting to know someone as gorgeous as Rodrigo can also feel inferior towards other girls and understands that indescribable feeling of being obsessed yet resentful of someone else. “Pretty isn’t pretty” is also another incredible song that highlights the never ending battle of insecurities. It’s the most truthful depiction of being self-conscious and exposes that even
the most extreme “solutions” cannot fix a corrupt perspective of what beauty is. Once again, she’s nailed exposing an adolescent girl’s mind.
At my first listen of “ballad of a homeschooled girl” and “get him back!”, I honestly had second-hand embarrassment at the way Rodrigo sounds. As if she’s trying to be too angsty. I think her inspiration was Jenny Humphrey from “Gossip Girl”. Yet again, I shouldn’t have been too quick to judge. After the first chorus, she hit way too close to home in ways I’m embarrassed to admit. These songs are way too catchy and personal to dislike and because of that, I will be pretending I’m an angsty girl by screaming the lyrics along with her. I love it.
“Vampire” is about her most recent boyfriend and breakup, where she reveals the manipulation and emotional neglect she went through during their relationship. The first thing I thought of when I heard these songs was how parallel it is to Swift’s relationship with John Mayer. You can hear the regret and hurt through the lyrics she projects and it makes me feel like I’ve been through it with her.
Yet, her other heartbreak song on the album, “logical”, was a disgrace to her reputation of good break-up songs. Honestly, a 5 year old could’ve written the lyrics of this song. The chorus lyrics are literally “two plus two equals five”. C’mon. Out of all of the amazing songs Rodrigo has written about love and heartbreak, these were the worst lyrics to portray it. But let’s be real, the songs about exes are the best ones. Rodrigo encapsulated in her first album, “sour”, what it’s like to be a teenage girl through heartbreak and insecurity. Needless to say, Miss Olivia has done it again. No one, I mean no one, does girlhood better than her.
