Every Tune Ranked on Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Sour’: Critic’s Picks

“Accepted Crime” facilities on the examination of glaring purple flags that simplest seem of their correct colours thru the lens of hindsight. As Rodrigo works thru the aftermath of heartbreak in exact time, the thinly veiled Bonnie and Clyde-form metaphor of the music loses its grip. Regardless of how grand she shares in the name of working thru the cease of a relationship, she tranquil holds some playing cards with reference to her chest, now not ready to build them all out ideal but. 

10. “Jealousy, Jealousy”

If the mind of a teen with an Instagram display camouflage camouflage time of larger than two hours had been to be digitized, it could well maybe maybe well lovely grand survey ideal love the scene Rodrigo lays out on “Jealousy, Jealousy,” co-written with Nigro and Casey Smith. Over a mettlesome bassline and a prowling piano create, the singer — who in most cases finds herself obsessed, for better or worse — is good of the incessant, toxic cycle of social media. Strangers change into game pieces in a nonexistent mental competition of who can curate primarily the most supreme online lifestyles, and Rodrgo can’t conclude taking half in. She is conscious of it isn’t exact, however that doesn’t imply she’s willing to lose.

9. “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Help”

Rodrigo articulates the impact of inconsistent, and even unhealthy verbal substitute within a relationship with spectacular maturity on “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Help.” The titillating fringe of the confession, “And perchance in some masochistic manner/ I form of uncover all of it thrilling/ Fancy which lover will I uncover at the present time?/ Will you poke me to the door or send me home crying?” is cushioned within an extraordinarily easy piano melody. The observe interpolates Taylor Swift’s Reputation closer “New one year’s Day,” with one other appreciative nod to her idol in the music’s title, which hides Swift’s well-liked number, 13.

8. “Hope Ur Ok”

With a title stylized in the form of a transient textual protest message, as even supposing it’s primarily the most efficient totally encompassing series of words, “hope ur good sufficient” is an exercise in songwriting. Not just like the album’s ten varied tracks, Rodrigo’s own chronicle takes a backseat on this Sour finale to the topics of secondhand tales the singer has easy from chums. She’s a creator that opts for specifics reasonably than vague recounts when introducing her characters, at the same time as she tries to suit as many flashes of fading memories into a verse before heading to the subsequent — with out a chorus talk in self belief to seperate them. The music builds to a extra generalized bridge that could maybe maybe well be with out misfortune at risk of the trap of overreaching relatability, however the care with which Rodrigo writes and delivers each lyric is grounded in exact sympathy.

7. “Happier”

“Happier” is one of the most few songs Rodrigo previously previewed as a demo on Instagram to develop it onto Sour. Sonically paying homage to Rihanna’s simmering “Like on the Brain,” the piano-led observe reads love a cherish letter and a resignation wrapped in one and sealed with the deep bass of Dan Nigro’s manufacturing. Rodrigo is self-serious and admittedly selfish, as she needs her extinct accomplice a delighted future plagued with reminders of the times they shared together. “Imagine me fondly when your hands are on her,” she offers with wholehearted sincerity. A whirlwind of emotions are invited into this three minute home, all with equal validity. 

6. “Deja Vu”

There’s something about Olivia Rodrigo’s hyper-notify attention to detail that could maybe maybe well simplest own been innately picked up thru her years preserving up with hidden messages and easter eggs as a Swiftie. The build “Drivers License” had its purple lights, conclude signs, white cars and entrance yards, “Deja Vu” has its strawberry ice cream, reruns of Glee and whisperings of “I cherish you” tucked into the manufacturing. The lyrical specificity (and total field subject) marks lovely grand primarily the most efficient part of her debut that Rodrigo saved round for her 2d single, otherwise releasing a fuzzier, punchier apply-up that additional provided her range as an artist. While many could maybe maybe additionally simply own been provided to her as a ballad belting Disney vital person grew to change into mainstream pop anomaly, “Deja Vu” made certain it changed into obvious she could maybe maybe well attain soaring, fizzing pop-rock, too. 

5. “Brutal” 

The shining, orchestral foundation of Sour’s opening observe “Brutal” wasn’t checking all of the containers for Rodrigo: “I need it to be, love, messy,” she instructs 12 seconds in. Attach a matter to and ye shall safe, as all straight away the music free falls into the depths of grungy rock. The observe’s movement of consciousness construction yields about a of the album’s most chord putting lyrics, love the tour-ready, “I’m so in unhappy health of 17/ The build’s my f–king teenage dream?” Rodrigo’s tackle coming of age in a time of hyper surveillance, social media and self-branding is mostly juxtaposed alongside extra minute worries. She can pen a brutally real Gen Z-geared anthem, no misfortune” — ideal don’t ask her to parallel park. 

4. “Correct 4 U”

While “Correct 4 U” likely won’t ever own the honor of being performed on a Warped Tour stage, screaming along to Rodrigo’s full-blown pop-punk single at top volume truly offers the equal level of youth angst. It pulls from the Paramore playbook, and welcomes all of the bitter frustration and pure spite brushed off in other places on the album in prefer of acting amicable (or a minimum of peaceful), over any other time validating the presence of those turbulent emotions. Rodrigo weaves out and in of genres at some point soon of Sour, however the pocket she taps into right here feels rapidly pure, even in the middle of a mainstream pop-punk revival that largely resists centering girls.

3. “Ample For You”

The tracks on Sour with about a of the album’s most searing lyrics tend to be those with straight forward, acoustic instrumentals. There’s no catching a punchy line on 2d or third pay attention in consequence of you had been distracted by the manufacturing initially — there’s simplest an figuring out of the emotional depth of the heightened intensity of young heartbreak as a catalyst for internal transformations. Rodrigo had teased “Ample For You” in the weeks leading as a lot as the album’s release, sharing the lyrics, “I wore make-up after we dated, trigger I figuring out you’d love me extra.” With the discharge of the total observe, it seems she left primarily the most intestine-punching, but uncomplicated lyrics to be heard, love: “I’d bid you broke my heart/ But you broke grand bigger than that/ Now I don’t prefer your sympathy/ I ideal prefer myself support.” 

2. “Drivers License” 

In a impulsively interesting pop sphere, “Drivers License” has already usually stood the take a look at of time. Beyond being primarily the most universally recognizable music on Sour, the observe serves as a third-observe reminder of how we purchased to this album as a full in the first location — and why there’s a world, highly invested interest in Rodrigo as each a singer and a songwriter. On the time of its surprising spike in public consumption, within a day of its initial release, most listeners couldn’t care less concerning the rumored topics of its lyrics or the drama intriguing that aspect of the singer’s lifestyles. The success of “Drivers License” remains most strongly linked to the world-encompassing emotion of one of pop music’s most thrilling unusual gamers. 

1. “Traitor”

Sandwiched between two emotionally heavy tracks with equally heavy manufacturing at the head of the album, “Traitor” is a chilling difference that capabilities Rodrigo’s simplest vocal efficiency on Sour. The cinematic upward thrust and descend of the music’s acoustics swirl softly across the singer’s vocals as she borders on a utter, soaring increased simplest towards the conclusion. Rodrigo lingers nearly about an ex interesting on with one other lady while she’s tranquil looking out to kind out what went grisly for loads of of the album. But, the reserved shipping of “Traitor” feels most clear with the layering of its harmonies, the at-times uneven cadences and the small gasps of breath left in between lyrics. It changed into this identical raw emotion that started it desirous about Rodrigo, anyway.