You find Olivia Rodrigo at her most mature, complex, and melancholic yet with her album, including a feature from Robert Smith. Her pivot to new wave is a new chapter in her incredible musical journey.
It becomes difficult to forget that Olivia Rodrigo was a Disney star. That is until you really sit down and listen to her music. After her explosive debut EP SOUR and the subsequent gear shift in GUTS, Olivia returns, regressing in her time chronology of genre inspirations while progressing ahead and writing new wave and rock-inspired tracks. Branded as what she calls “sad love songs”, this album not only shows growth and exploration of a style she has hinted at before but also her emotive personality when she looks at love, point blank. Today we are looking at “you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love.”
The choice of melodies
Pairing with Dan Nigro again for her collection, we’re convinced he is her Rick Rubin. Not only does Dan understand Olivia’s past, but he also knows how she wants to thematically explore new fingerprints in music. He is co-credited with almost all of her tracks to date and is definitive in producing and honing that recognisable Olivia Rodrigo pop-punk teenage sound.
We got the sound down, but what really is the theme of this new album? Though it is a relationship that is in the past, Louis Partridge is her “muse” in this particular collection. It is pretty sweet, confusing, and sour in parts, and it is intense how a genre like new wave is able to bring all those emotions together.
The internet connect
Let’s keep it real. Olivia Rodrigo is an internet kid just like us. She has discovered a mish-mash of artists who were current in the nineties and pop stars that were rising in the two thousands, the same way crooks like me were downloading illegal MP3 files off the internet and finding random treasures. Olivia might have chanced upon the early 80s and really got hooked onto new wave and alt rock. Heck, I listened to my first Cure album when some genius parsed their discography instead of the crack for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. I still listen to the Cure every other week. I stopped gaming long ago.
Sadness, but in love
We start with a lot of positivity and growth with the opening song “drop dead”. I would like to admire Dan Negro’s incredible mixing from this track itself. It not only mirrors the pop aesthetic that Olivia clearly grew into and from, but it also already sets the cloudy ambience for the new wave inspiration that is to come. A catchy, fun, and honey-sweet opening to an album where Olivia is purposely rewriting the playbook. By the second track you already feel like she is writing songs in a hotel room as she tours and tries to make time for her relationship. It’s a good love that we have directed towards famous people, for the social contract they signed is leading an extraordinary life and letting go of an ordinary one. Relationships in the extraordinary beg for normalcy.
Through the age(s)
It’s also important to note that Olivia Rodrigo is only 23 years old. She’s supposed to write songs like a teenager does, processing them not always with maturity but with the sudden urge and rawness of the emotions she might be feeling then and there. Her vocals are incredible, and she really breaks the glass ceiling from what was assumed to be her pop-punk voice to that of a bedroom opera singer, all within the first few songs. Like her musical inspiration Taylor Swift, Olivia writes of the relationship while she is in one, while being analytical about all the things that fall into place and don’t. Everything gets stripped back in songs like “honeybee”, where just the felted piano notes and Rodrigo’s gentle voice become the emotive flurry to listen to.
The new wave edge
True New Wave inspiration comes from “maggots for brains”, where the pop elements are allowed to pierce through the veil only ever so often. Like always, Olivia takes control of the chorus to make it a cheerful, uplifting section. No matter what heartbreak, struggle, or moment of faltering she might be going through, she creates a beautiful resolution within the song itself. With a couple of strong pop songs, Olivia is really making her way into being a pop staple. “u+me=<3” is another number that solidifies that. It’s something you’ll hear people making reels of, singing at concerts and dedicating to their partners. The late 80s influence comes in, and it comes in strong with a song like “my way.”
Bringing Amy Allen for writing these songs seems like a masterstroke from Olivia’s team. Amy has become known in the industry for co-writing songs with Harry Styles, Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, among others. Rather than blending into tropes, Olivia brings her own style out with some more lyrical nuances and vocal lines that aren’t just mirrors of the chord progression. Like Taylor’s “Lavender Haze”, Olivia is able to capture a very precise set of emotions in a song like “purple.” It not only reflects what she was feeling at the time and what she is singing about but emits some of that pastel glow that is so comforting and easy to just melt into.
The cure for heartbreak
One of the most recognisable mixtape moments of the album appears in the song called “the cure”. Not only does it reference Foo Fighters’ hit “Everlong” but also the kind of rhythm that you would put on a rock radio collection. Her vocal register is mild, and it follows the sound of a suggestion during the verse rather than punching it the way she did in her pop-punk era. It also foreshadows a guest on the album, which is something she’s done for the first time in her career. After the sweet emotional ballad that is “begged,” you are listening to Robert Smith from The Cure sing with Olivia on her track “what’s wrong with me”.
Not only does this represent Olivia Rodrigo in her moment of grace, singing about love, but it brings back the most widely known voice to have done the same in the 80s. Famously Robert Smith found some of the most melancholy parts of love and strung them together in a song that made you feel like you were in a relationship and moving out of it all at the same time. Olivia, at such a young age, is able to do it for a whole new generation while paying homage to a generation that inspired so many musicians. She seems pretty bad ass for a girl so in love:
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Disclaimer: This release was brought to you by a promotional campaign by the artist, PR, or management label
