mari

i can't say i've known olivia rodrigo since bizaardvark or hsmtmts. i can very clearly remember being in my sister's car listening to good4u for the first time and immediately being hooked onto the bedroom pop sound of it. i went home and listened to the entire SOUR album and i was obsessed with brutal (which is now my third most listened to song ever on spotify). since 2021, i've been sat for the next two albums she's released. a lot of artists these days are now making music for the money and you can very clearly hear that when you listen to their new songs. consequently, i was very worried olivia rodrigo would be the same. but i'm glad to say, my worries were for nothing, because this new album was so good! i will say this album felt more mature than her last two. the last ones had this teenage edge to it and were generally more pop-sounding. this album sounded much more indie and were definitely more calmer compared to her last album. although i did have some longing for that pop sound, this does not mean that i didn't like it! it honestly shows her maturity as she progresses through the relationships in her life and i think that's very beautiful. this album in general was very beautiful from the lyrics to the sound of it. she has definitely improved in songwriting. it was very, very hard to choose my top three but i managed to do it, so here you go!! 1 : expectations ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ i don't even know what it is about this song that has got me hooked honestly... it's always stuck in my head and the first thing i add to queue when i listen to music. it has that pop sound to it that i really like, the time that is so adrenaline inducing as brutal and ballad of a homeschool girl had for me. the lyrics were sarcastic and witty and that's what i love mostly about this song. the high of coming out of a failed relationship and deciding to set your standards higher genuinely feels like something olivia would write about. now i mumble to myself "don't think my future husband's here at this bar in silverlake" as i load the dishwasher or put the clothes outside. and yes, my mum has caught on, questioned it once and chose to tune it out. 2 : the cure ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ i love love LOVE this song. the sound, the lyrics, the music video.. omg where do i even start. i honestly think this is her best song in terms of lyrics. she puts insecurity and desperation in a song so perfectly. i cannot stop searching up interpretations of this song because it feels like everything she wrote was so intentional. i'm gna be honest though, when i saw the song was going to be called 'the cure', i assumed it would be in the 'so in love' section of the album and have something to do with louis's love for the cure 😭 if i didn't love myself a good pop song, this would have definitely been number one. 3 : u + me = <3 ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ this song literally feels like the kdrama montages of the main leads laughing together and falling in love with each other. when i heard this song for the first time, i thought it was kinda like an extension of 'so american' and the continuation of their relationship (bars). hearing the 'let's get married when we're twenty-five' broke me because louis and olivia will most likely not get married when they are twenty-five... it felt like when you reread a book and read about the character you know is going to die and you can't do anything about it LOL. honourable mention : honeybee ʚɞ this is my sixth favourite song off the album but i feel like it deserved its moment. i cannot get enough of the violin music break in the middle or conan gray's glorious backing vocals. this album was so much better than i expected it to be and olivia exceeded all my expectations. i tried to gaslight myself into thinking her and louis did not break up and i really thought it was just a pr stunt for her new album but guess not!! jokes aside, it really does feel like olivia makes albums for herself and not for the money. i do not mind waiting 2-3 years per album if it means having songs with quality like this.