Latest / The Tortured Fans Department / Ep. 57 - 'you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love' - Olivia Rodrigo (Album Review)

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Ep. 57 - 'you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love' - Olivia Rodrigo (Album Review) · The Tortured Fans Department

0:22
SPEAKER_02: Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Tortured Fans Department podcast.
0:27
SPEAKER_02: I am your host, Sean Boyle, and joining me today, it's a special guest, an album review episode with none other than a founding father of the program, Mr.
0:35
SPEAKER_02: Michael Collins, making his debut on an album review.
0:38
SPEAKER_02: Happy to have you.
0:39
SPEAKER_01: How are you, MC?
0:41
SPEAKER_01: Sean, so great to be here.
0:43
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
0:44
SPEAKER_01: Uh, yeah, popping my album review, Cherry.
0:47
SPEAKER_01: Very excited to do so with you and get some non-musically educated takes off my chest here.
0:56
SPEAKER_02: That's a good way to preface it.
0:58
SPEAKER_02: Neither of us are music experts.
0:59
SPEAKER_02: We lost our expert, quote unquote Ryan.
1:02
SPEAKER_02: He's the guy who breaks down what kind of chords these are and chord progressions and key changes and things of that nature.
1:08
SPEAKER_02: We're here for vibes, okay?
1:10
SPEAKER_02: I couldn't be bothered.
1:11
SPEAKER_02: We're not bothered with things of that nature.
1:13
SPEAKER_02: We are here to talk about music, have some fun with it, maybe make some jokes along the way.
1:19
SPEAKER_02: That's our MO.
1:20
SPEAKER_02: I will say we should give the listeners just a little bit of context in terms of what your listening profile is and how we overlap, I would say, in a good way.
1:28
SPEAKER_02: A lot of the music we listen to is similar.
1:31
SPEAKER_02: We're both fans of like the oldies, the classics, Beatles, good quality music, and then we both love girly pop.
1:39
SPEAKER_02: Teenage girl music is how some would describe it, maybe, you know.
1:43
SPEAKER_02: But I think where we maybe split a little bit is uh our Venn diagram goes separate ways where I go into some jam bands and you dip your toes in country, and that's kind of where that's about it, though.
1:53
SPEAKER_01: That's definitely true.
1:54
SPEAKER_01: Now, when I am introducing my music preferences to new people or people I'm not all that well acquainted with, often I say, at my core, I have the music takes of a uh 16-year-old girl.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: So that's it, you can kind of just put that out there.
2:13
SPEAKER_01: Uh Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, Hiri Styles, all things one direction.
2:18
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, you take it from there.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: Like you said, yes, country hops in there, and then of course the oldies, like who doesn't love that?
2:26
SPEAKER_01: But you pretty much squared me up there.
2:28
SPEAKER_02: I think you're great to have on this program in particular.
2:31
SPEAKER_02: As you can tell from the episode title, we will be reviewing Olivia Rodrigo's newest album, which it's a real mouthful here.
2:39
SPEAKER_02: It's called You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love.
2:43
SPEAKER_02: I don't think I'll be referring it to that full title anymore in this episode.
2:47
SPEAKER_02: So you get it once, that's it out of me.
2:49
SPEAKER_02: I just want to start with, I guess, your familiarity with Olivia Rodrigo.
2:53
SPEAKER_02: I have to say to the listeners, while I do claim to be a big fan of the girly pop, like MC just mentioned, she is one that I've never really gotten into.
3:02
SPEAKER_02: I knew the big singles, obviously, it's impossible to avoid songs like Driver's License and Vampire.
3:08
SPEAKER_02: And I didn't think they were bad by any means, but they just never made me feel the urge to dive any further.
3:14
SPEAKER_02: So, as someone who is a little bit more aware of her musical profile, I'd like to get just the basics out of the way in terms of what you know about her music so far.
3:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
3:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
3:25
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, like many, many others out there, I first became aware of her after her mega hit uh driver's license.
3:33
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you may have heard of it.
3:35
SPEAKER_01: I'm aware that she before that was on a Disney channel show, like a high school musical spin-off type of deal.
3:44
SPEAKER_01: That type of content hasn't necessarily crossed my desk since the like Vanessa Hudgens era, of which I was a fan, but I've kind of moved on.
3:52
SPEAKER_01: I'm not, I I have to I will say I'm not that much of a teenage girl that I do I do tend to avoid things in shows like that.
4:00
SPEAKER_01: Regardless, uh post driver's license, I was a huge, huge fan of her uh debut album called Sour.
4:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh, to me, it's a borderline masterpiece.
4:11
SPEAKER_01: Uh, maybe something that we can go into in more depth on a on a future episode.
4:17
SPEAKER_01: That's that's certainly a possibility.
4:19
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, sour sour definitely hit me uh properly.
4:24
SPEAKER_01: I was I was a big fan of that.
4:26
SPEAKER_01: The following uh album, Guts, not quite for me.
4:31
SPEAKER_01: It it it was a bit of a miss in my eyes, unfortunately.
4:35
SPEAKER_01: But one thing is for sure, as we've sort of touched on already, it that is that she pretty consistently puts out pop bangers.
4:43
SPEAKER_01: So, like even you mentioned the song Vampire, that's off of the guts album, which I'm not a huge fan of, but I love Vampire, of course.
4:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's uh driver's license we've mentioned, Deja Vu is an amazing song.
4:55
SPEAKER_01: Good for you.
4:56
SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, she's she's pretty consistently putting out those pop bangers, and she's sort of followed suit with a few of these on this album.
5:04
SPEAKER_01: So I'm excited to get in down and dirty with that.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: I will say the sour album, you know, sort of posthumously, it was uh it went around on the internet that maybe there's a song or two or three or four that sound very, very similar to some other very famous pop songs, and that might have sort of been a little bug in the back of my brain that made me enjoy it as much as I did.
5:31
SPEAKER_01: So that's something that you can feel free to look in on your own time uh if you like, but that might also be something that comes up later in this episode as well.
5:41
SPEAKER_01: So just something to keep keep and keep your eye on as far as Olivia Rodrigo goes, is that uh she's not afraid to sound like your favorite artist from time to time.
5:51
SPEAKER_02: I think that's a perfect way to lock that line.
5:53
SPEAKER_02: We're not we're not here to throw accusations in any way, but you actually, before the episode, when kind of educating me on the topic, as we said, we're not experts.
6:02
SPEAKER_02: I'm certainly not an expert on Olivia Rodrigo.
6:04
SPEAKER_02: So I want you to just explain exactly which songs in the past have maybe been accredited after the fact to some prior music.
6:12
SPEAKER_02: So you gave me a couple of examples.
6:14
SPEAKER_02: And I just made for the listeners to run through exactly what they were.
6:18
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, well, so first and foremost, right off the bat, uh Good For You is a major hit off of Sour.
6:25
SPEAKER_01: And if you've heard Misery Business by Paramour, we'll just say that they they are they're alike.
6:33
SPEAKER_01: Paramour Haley Williams has been given songwriting credits and has been credited on Good For You, I believe, if I'm not mistaken.
6:42
SPEAKER_01: And then the same exact thing for Deja Vu with uh Taylor Swift.
6:47
SPEAKER_01: There's a sort of right in the bridge, there's a cruel summer kind of similarity there.
6:52
SPEAKER_01: And then same going right along with her her nice, uh nice, soft, sweet song, one step forward, three steps back.
7:00
SPEAKER_01: The piano on that it's just really similar.
7:06
SPEAKER_02: So I had never heard that song, and you had me before the show.
7:09
SPEAKER_02: You said, Hey, just play the first three seconds of that song and tell me what it sounds like.
7:12
SPEAKER_02: And I immediately was like, Oh, there's glitter on the floor after the party.
7:15
SPEAKER_01: It sounds just like started singing New Year's Day by Taylor Swift.
7:19
SPEAKER_01: So, hey, again, we're not we're not here to accuse of anything, we're fans.
7:25
SPEAKER_01: Let's let's put that out there.
7:26
SPEAKER_01: We're fans of Olivia Rodrigo.
7:28
SPEAKER_01: Those artists, the but the band Paramour and uh Taylor Swift, they do have song writing credits on those tracks, however.
7:38
SPEAKER_01: So we'll just say that.
7:39
SPEAKER_02: That's a good place to leave it.
7:40
SPEAKER_02: I want to know quickly, what did you like exactly about her first album compared to her second?
7:46
SPEAKER_02: What was what was great about the first one that you felt lacked in the second?
7:51
SPEAKER_01: It it might have been the Taylor Swift songs that were on the phone.
7:54
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm kidding.
7:55
SPEAKER_01: The the first one was truly like a through and through pop album with you know a little a few little ballads in there, but at its core, it was pop bangers, uh, you know, bops that are that you'll hear on the radio.
8:10
SPEAKER_01: I'm not afraid to say it.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: I like that type of stuff.
8:14
SPEAKER_01: The that that is sour, and then guts.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: It felt like she was just trying to have like an alt-rock moment with what the meat of the album is, and it and she kept around like the slower, softer uh vibes as she did in in sour with like kind of some of the back, some of the uh secondary tracks that are on there, and it just didn't mesh all that well.
8:39
SPEAKER_01: She also kind of did a little bit too much of the like talking verse thing in those like alt-rock sounding songs, and I'm generally a fan of that type of sound, but it just didn't work for me, and it was just the sounds from Sour to Guts is just totally different.
8:59
SPEAKER_01: So, with that being said, I was totally unsure of what to expect with this new album.
9:05
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I'm I'm pleasantly surprised.
9:07
SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to go through it.
9:09
SPEAKER_02: Perfectly well said.
9:10
SPEAKER_02: I think that's good.
9:11
SPEAKER_02: We provided some context on exactly where we stand with Miss Rodrigo.
9:15
SPEAKER_02: For anybody who's completely unaware of her, I have had some feedback saying they listen to these album reviews and the record club episodes, even if they don't know anything about the music or don't like it.
9:24
SPEAKER_02: So that's nice to hear.
9:26
SPEAKER_02: So, if that's the case, some background on Olivia herself.
9:29
SPEAKER_02: She was born in Marietta, California.
9:32
SPEAKER_02: She's only 23 years old, which some of these things we're we're obviously we're reviewing an album, so there's going to be criticism, but it's not in a bad way.
9:41
SPEAKER_02: It's just in our preference.
9:42
SPEAKER_02: So I just want to make sure that context is provided.
9:45
SPEAKER_02: She's only 23.
9:46
SPEAKER_02: So I mean, doing what she did as a 19-year-old to create a quote unquote masterpiece, according to MC, that's special stuff.
9:51
SPEAKER_02: So we're talking about really like a superb talent and one of the few pop stars that we have in the United States.
9:59
SPEAKER_02: So I don't think any of this is coming from a place of ill intent or bad heart.
10:04
SPEAKER_02: She started acting.
10:05
SPEAKER_02: You mentioned she was in a high school musical show of sorts.
10:08
SPEAKER_02: I did not know she was a child actress at all.
10:11
SPEAKER_02: I didn't know she was, she started acting when she was 12, which is interesting.
10:15
SPEAKER_02: I will say, after I was doing preparation for this episode, funny enough, I saw a clip from New Girl on my timeline today, and Olivia Rodrigo was one of Jessica Day's students in the clip.
10:24
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
10:25
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, I didn't know that.
10:27
SPEAKER_02: And I didn't fact check it, but it had it just had to be her.
10:30
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it looked exactly like her.
10:31
SPEAKER_02: So maybe take that with a grain of salt, but I'm pretty sure that was the case.
10:35
SPEAKER_02: In terms of her musical career, you mentioned it.
10:38
SPEAKER_02: It really took off after Driver's License.
10:40
SPEAKER_02: That was the thing that sparked everything for her.
10:43
SPEAKER_02: It was her lead single, her debut single, and it broke the record for streams in a day at one point on Spotify.
10:49
SPEAKER_02: Outside of, I guess, holiday music was how they framed it.
10:52
SPEAKER_02: So maybe some All I Want for Christmas is new was Stealing the Spotlight.
10:56
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I think that's bursting onto a scene in a way that very few could.
11:01
SPEAKER_01: She also, you know, kind of since we're on the driver's license topic and the uh the high school musical and everything, there was a little bit of a feud in there, too.
11:10
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you're familiar with with uh Sabrina Carpenter.
11:13
SPEAKER_01: I believe that uh the driver's license song is sort of about Sabrina Carpenter, or they were in something of a love triangle.
11:23
SPEAKER_01: And then they're you know, I from what I understand, the two don't like each other.
11:28
SPEAKER_01: I'm not fully versed on the uh situation, but I know that there is a riff between Olivia and Sabrina, and Olivia and Taylor Swift, and you know, there there's some potential issues amongst the the trio there.
11:44
SPEAKER_02: We hate to see that.
11:45
SPEAKER_02: We gotta stop making fights with some of our favorites.
11:48
SPEAKER_02: We can't have infighting on the on the on the team here.
11:51
SPEAKER_02: The house divided.
11:53
SPEAKER_02: We don't we don't like that.
11:54
SPEAKER_02: In terms of this album, you mentioned how we had a great first album, sort of a subpar second, at least in terms of how you viewed them.
12:03
SPEAKER_02: In my opinion, anyway, yeah.
12:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and yeah, and of course it's all the eye of the beholder.
12:09
SPEAKER_02: The third album was much anticipated, safe to say.
12:12
SPEAKER_02: She's still very popular.
12:13
SPEAKER_02: Her commercially, her second album did do well.
12:16
SPEAKER_02: It was once again this album produced by Dan Nigro.
12:20
SPEAKER_02: So Dan Nigro has been at the forefront of most of her music.
12:25
SPEAKER_02: It seems like that's her primary collaborator throughout all of her career thus far.
12:28
SPEAKER_02: He has also worked with Chapel Roan, produced her most popular album, Renee Rapp, Maisie Peters, Conan Gray, who is a close friend of Olivia, and Lorde.
12:38
SPEAKER_02: So really, a lot of those pop stars that aren't named, Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift is where Dan seems to be spending most of his time.
12:45
SPEAKER_01: Nice little rap sheet for Big Dan there.
12:49
SPEAKER_02: Pretty impressive list for sure.
12:51
SPEAKER_02: Olivia, as you would expect, writes writes on every song on this album.
12:56
SPEAKER_02: She prides herself in her songwriting, so you would expect her to be doing the heavy lifting in the writing room.
13:02
SPEAKER_02: We love to see that.
13:03
SPEAKER_02: I I do think it knocks you down a peg if you don't write your own songs.
13:06
SPEAKER_02: So that's just a thing, but yeah, I am I'm not here for that.
13:10
SPEAKER_02: Dan also writes on every song, except for Honey Bee and Begged.
13:14
SPEAKER_01: Are those two are they fully Olivia?
13:16
SPEAKER_01: Honeybee and Begged?
13:17
SPEAKER_02: They're both fully Olivia, those two songs.
13:19
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
13:20
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I didn't know that.
13:21
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
13:21
SPEAKER_02: The rest have other co-writers.
13:24
SPEAKER_02: The main third writer would be Amy Allen, who is everywhere.
13:28
SPEAKER_02: She seems to have a hand in all of the popular music today, and especially Sabrina Carpenter.
13:34
SPEAKER_02: So that's interesting that Amy has jumped over to this side of the aisle as well.
13:38
SPEAKER_02: She writes on several and she continues to turn things to gold, it seems.
13:42
SPEAKER_02: She just has a certain touch.
13:44
SPEAKER_02: She knows what works in today's climate, and a lot of what she touches seems to turn to gold.
13:49
SPEAKER_02: Lastly, I guess just prefacing how this album has done so far, it's been met with lots of praise, and the charts reflect that.
13:57
SPEAKER_02: Drop Dead has reached number one in five different countries.
14:00
SPEAKER_02: The album has charted at number one in over ten countries.
14:04
SPEAKER_02: It's been the most streamed album since it came out.
14:06
SPEAKER_02: She announced a tour that will take place starting in September of this year called the Unraveled Tour, where you would expect to hear a lot of these on the road.
14:14
SPEAKER_02: So we've laid the groundwork for the album MC.
14:17
SPEAKER_02: It's time to dive in.
14:19
SPEAKER_02: The first track was the lead single.
14:21
SPEAKER_02: I do like when they do that.
14:22
SPEAKER_02: It seems to be another trend nowadays.
14:24
SPEAKER_02: Just start off.
14:24
SPEAKER_02: You know what the first one's gonna sound like.
14:26
SPEAKER_02: Drop Dead.
14:27
SPEAKER_02: Give me your thoughts on Drop Dead.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I I actually kind of had the opposite opinion.
14:33
SPEAKER_01: I so I'm first of all, I'm always like very interested to see how an artist or band introduces, you know, song number one, sets the tone for the the the entire album, sort of like a first impression.
14:45
SPEAKER_01: And uh, and by the way, don't don't ever trust anybody that that says first impressions don't matter because that that's just a full face lie.
14:53
SPEAKER_01: You always remember your first impression of a person or place or thing.
14:57
SPEAKER_01: So I I was a little bit surprised that she went with the lead single on as the uh the kind of tone setter for this album, but like you said, you you know what you're getting.
15:08
SPEAKER_01: It definitely starts the the album out on a high note.
15:11
SPEAKER_01: This is a classic Olivia Rodrigo banger, it's just it's just banger city.
15:17
SPEAKER_01: This is the the pop bop that that we've been looking for that she does so well, you know.
15:23
SPEAKER_01: So we said it already that she consistently churns these types of songs out, and this is this is one of them.
15:29
SPEAKER_01: This is a great song.
15:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, this one I enjoyed.
15:33
SPEAKER_02: I I will say it seemed just a little bit more developed than some of her previous work for me.
15:38
SPEAKER_02: It seemed like the songs that I had heard from her that I liked were either very one note and kind of, oh, I get what she's doing there.
15:45
SPEAKER_02: Like driver's license, it's a nice song if you're into that sort of thing.
15:48
SPEAKER_02: There's not a ton of dynamics outside of her vocals and the catchiness of it.
15:53
SPEAKER_02: This one felt like a completely cooked finished product, which I liked.
15:57
SPEAKER_02: I think that's a big feature for me throughout the album, is just how much further she's developed in all of her production and music and this.
16:04
SPEAKER_02: So I really did enjoy this one.
16:06
SPEAKER_02: And I think it starts to see another person who I didn't mention in terms of their work on the album, but I definitely know played a heavy influence, and that's Robert Smith, the lead singer of The Cure.
16:16
SPEAKER_02: He's featured on the album.
16:17
SPEAKER_02: It's her only ever feature on a studio album.
16:20
SPEAKER_02: So we'll get to that when that song comes up.
16:22
SPEAKER_02: I do think this song, you start to see at the end of it the influence of the band The Cure.
16:27
SPEAKER_02: It starts to pick up that sound of theirs, which I'm a big fan of that.
16:30
SPEAKER_02: So I think the first one it was we're off to a good start, and we move on to the second song.
16:35
SPEAKER_02: And Collins, I have to say, I fell in love with this one.
16:38
SPEAKER_02: This one was immediately you got me.
16:40
SPEAKER_02: It starts with just her and the piano, gentle piano, nice melody, and you could tell it's building to something.
16:46
SPEAKER_02: And then she hits that walking through the park with my head high, and it turns into a just a complete potential song of the summer.
16:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, this is 100% banger city extended.
16:59
SPEAKER_01: It's just one into two, banger banger.
17:01
SPEAKER_01: Uh I personally am not as quite as high on it as you are.
17:06
SPEAKER_01: I know you like you just said, you were very early to dub it Song of the Summer.
17:12
SPEAKER_01: I think I actually personally like Drop Dead a little bit more, but you know, it's six in one, half dozen in the other.
17:18
SPEAKER_01: This is this is peak live rod, and you know, one, two starting the album off hot.
17:24
SPEAKER_02: I'm actually I'm glad you brought that up.
17:26
SPEAKER_02: I'm glad we have a little bit of a differing opinion because I liked Drop Dead, but it by no means is it one of my favorites on the album.
17:31
SPEAKER_01: So that's fair.
17:33
SPEAKER_01: I I don't think it's one of I don't know that it's top two or three for me either, but uh yeah.
17:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm definitely a little higher on stupid song, which I enjoyed.
17:44
SPEAKER_02: It it does a good job of kind of capturing all the things I like in music.
17:48
SPEAKER_02: I love a piano moment, and we get that.
17:51
SPEAKER_02: But you can tell there's energy in the piano, it's not just a lullaby put you to sleep, it's getting somewhere, and then it pays off down the stretch.
17:59
SPEAKER_02: And I think another theme I want to point on in this album, and I don't know if you picked this up as well, but I feel like each song almost gets better as it goes on.
18:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and the minute half two minutes are great.
18:08
SPEAKER_01: Definitely, definitely.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: That's the case for the next one that we'll talk about too, we'll which we'll get to.
18:14
SPEAKER_01: But uh Olivia Rodrigo sitting down at the piano is always good news.
18:18
SPEAKER_01: That's that's where we need her, as a matter of fact.
18:22
SPEAKER_01: That's your spot.
18:24
SPEAKER_02: You play it well, do your job, Bill Belichick.
18:27
SPEAKER_02: I I think it's dictate tempo, Olivia.
18:31
SPEAKER_02: You start us off with Honey B.
18:32
SPEAKER_02: What were your thoughts on Honey B?
18:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, I just said it.
18:35
SPEAKER_01: You know, so she's at her to me, she's at her best when she goes from the the pop banger bops to just drop it down and and just go gut wrencher, uh soft, smooth ballad.
18:50
SPEAKER_01: It's a true yin and yang situation, and it works out so well.
18:53
SPEAKER_01: And that's actually sort of what I was trying to say that she was missing on guts because she was messing around with such a like a different sound in those higher tempo songs.
19:05
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, no, it's simple.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: It it this this might not be a mainstay for me potentially, but I definitely appreciate it.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: It's got a great place on this one.
19:16
SPEAKER_01: It sounds to me at times a little bit like uh her song from Sour, uh Favorite Crime, especially as it builds along, and towards the end of the song, we hear it a lot more.
19:28
SPEAKER_01: And that's you know, we we mention that as it all these songs kind of build.
19:32
SPEAKER_01: Favorite crime, certainly one of my favorites off of uh Sour.
19:36
SPEAKER_01: So I was happy to hear that.
19:37
SPEAKER_01: I I appreciate this song for what it is.
19:40
SPEAKER_02: I'll go give that one a listen.
19:41
SPEAKER_02: I'm unfamiliar with favorite crime.
19:43
SPEAKER_02: So Olivia, it's it's perfectly fine to dip your toe back in your own pond.
19:48
SPEAKER_02: That's okay.
19:50
SPEAKER_02: Do that as much as do that as much as you like.
19:52
SPEAKER_02: You own that pool, you paid for it, swimming as much as you want.
19:55
SPEAKER_02: I think I think it's where you start to experiment some others that you might run into trouble.
20:00
SPEAKER_02: But I had some notes on this one that were similar to yours.
20:04
SPEAKER_02: It's a delicate song, it's well written.
20:06
SPEAKER_02: I love the orchestra feel, the strings really shine in this one.
20:09
SPEAKER_02: It's just gentle, it's nice, it's easy on the ear.
20:12
SPEAKER_02: I also do agree.
20:13
SPEAKER_02: I'm not so sure how much I'll be going back to it.
20:16
SPEAKER_02: It's one of those that fits well within the album, but it's not necessarily making its way onto any playlists, you know?
20:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I agree with that.
20:24
SPEAKER_02: The fourth tune, however, maggots for brains.
20:27
SPEAKER_02: Boy, oh boy, we're back here.
20:30
SPEAKER_02: I think this is another bop.
20:31
SPEAKER_02: You just may have mentioned she likes to ride the bop bop gut rancher bop, and here we go again.
20:37
SPEAKER_02: This is this is a bop.
20:38
SPEAKER_02: The only nitpick I have is the word maggots.
20:42
SPEAKER_02: It just there's a certain repulsion to it that I just I don't know.
20:47
SPEAKER_02: I every time I hear it's like, do we have to use maggots for brains?
20:51
SPEAKER_02: It kind of distracts me from how good the song is.
20:54
SPEAKER_01: But other than that, it's really good.
20:56
SPEAKER_01: Totally fair.
20:57
SPEAKER_01: No, I mean, I I love the song.
20:58
SPEAKER_01: This this is one, this is probably one of my favorites.
21:02
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's incredibly catchy.
21:04
SPEAKER_01: This is def as opposed to Honeybee, the the previous, this is definitely one that's gonna wind up on some playlists.
21:11
SPEAKER_01: I'll be coming back to this one.
21:13
SPEAKER_01: Um, it's just you know, exactly what we're looking for from Olivia.
21:16
SPEAKER_01: It's the it's those pop ops.
21:19
SPEAKER_01: I I'm beating the dead horse with the with the bangers, but th four songs in, we've got we've got three absolute bangers.
21:29
SPEAKER_01: So uh yeah, this this one is is uh amongst my favorites on the album, probably.
21:35
SPEAKER_02: And now I I don't want to also beat another dead horse in terms of walking a really thin line in terms of using other people's music or I listen.
21:44
SPEAKER_02: I couldn't create one yeah, borrowing.
21:46
SPEAKER_02: I couldn't create one song on my own.
21:48
SPEAKER_02: You know, we're not we're not music guys, we're not in that room.
21:51
SPEAKER_02: So far be it from us to say we could do better or say we wouldn't accidentally use something that might belong to someone else.
21:58
SPEAKER_02: I you know, I've borrowed a Phone charger in my day.
22:01
SPEAKER_02: But I have to say the bridge of this song sounds exactly like Take On Me by Aha.
22:12
SPEAKER_02: And listen, banger.
22:13
SPEAKER_02: You want to talk bang or all-time banger?
22:15
SPEAKER_02: Take Take On Me is a great one.
22:17
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
22:17
SPEAKER_02: You don't pull from anything, pull from there.
22:19
SPEAKER_02: But we're walking a thin line, Olivia, and you have a you have a you have a record, you know, you have a rap sheet.
22:27
SPEAKER_02: So just know that like our guard's up.
22:30
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
22:30
SPEAKER_02: One for all.
22:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
22:32
SPEAKER_02: So just listeners, if you haven't heard, I know you've heard Take On Me, but if you haven't heard the bridge of this song, just go give it a listen and tell me it doesn't sound like the high notes and take on me.
22:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you clocked this one and you played it for me pre-show, and I I didn't have it at first, but yeah, sure.
22:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's you you're correct.
22:52
SPEAKER_02: Just something to monitor, you know.
22:54
SPEAKER_02: We're not accused again.
22:56
SPEAKER_02: Just be mindful.
22:58
SPEAKER_02: Track five, Collins.
23:00
SPEAKER_02: You plus me equals a heart.
23:03
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
23:04
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm in love with this.
23:06
SPEAKER_01: You missed the opportunity for for the for the rhyme there.
23:10
SPEAKER_01: You plus me equals less than three.
23:13
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I didn't hear it is what it says, technically speaking.
23:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
23:18
SPEAKER_01: Nah, I mean this the the and like it's aptly named and the way that she's she typed out the heart there, too, because this is sort of like that high school vibe, love song, and she just absolutely excels at that.
23:33
SPEAKER_01: Um five songs in, we're we're beating that horse again, we're we're banger city.
23:38
SPEAKER_01: Uh, this is a just a really nice pop song.
23:42
SPEAKER_01: It's a great pop song.
23:43
SPEAKER_02: In my notes, too.
23:45
SPEAKER_02: Listen, first word banger.
23:47
SPEAKER_01: We're just in bangerville, USA, man.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: We're five in, we're five in, and we got four of them already.
23:53
SPEAKER_02: And this is great news for me because I was not, like I said, an Olivia Rodrigo guy, but I I found myself becoming one.
23:59
SPEAKER_02: This song, I I had the note Pacific Coast Highway.
24:02
SPEAKER_02: I don't necessarily know what that means, but the guitar feels like I'm driving along the Pacific Coast Highway.
24:07
SPEAKER_02: I love the guitar in this song.
24:09
SPEAKER_02: It just does a good job.
24:11
SPEAKER_02: It's there, but it's not overbearing, it keeps me engaged.
24:14
SPEAKER_02: And then I love the line modern love's a cruel endeavor, but fuck it, whatever.
24:19
SPEAKER_02: Just you know what?
24:20
SPEAKER_02: Actual, yeah, that's good stuff.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:23
SPEAKER_02: Track six is my way, which this is just a no thank you for me.
24:28
SPEAKER_02: Uh didn't not what I ordered.
24:31
SPEAKER_02: I would like you to take it away as soon as possible.
24:33
SPEAKER_02: Just a lot of noise, in my opinion.
24:35
SPEAKER_02: And I don't want to harp on it.
24:37
SPEAKER_02: She was throwing a really good ball game, she gave him a brand slam.
24:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:41
SPEAKER_01: No, this is this is what we were worried about, Sean, coming coming into the album.
24:46
SPEAKER_01: This is where we kind of we kind of stray, we eat the trash a little bit.
24:50
SPEAKER_01: This is the guts sound.
24:52
SPEAKER_01: We were hoping we were hoping to leave this.
24:55
SPEAKER_01: And we and and it it reared its ugly head.
24:58
SPEAKER_01: And I hate to say, we're not quite done with the sound on on this album in particular, either.
25:04
SPEAKER_01: We'll get to it.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, this one's a miss.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: This was this is a guts song.
25:09
SPEAKER_02: We were driving right along the Pacific Coast Highway, and then there was just a pile up, and we didn't see it coming.
25:16
SPEAKER_02: Earthquake.
25:17
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
25:17
SPEAKER_02: The fault line and boy oh boy, next thing you know, it's wow, we got we got two tires left, and we're just trying to make it home.
25:24
SPEAKER_02: I will say, it's about how you respond to adversity.
25:28
SPEAKER_02: And track seven, purple.
25:30
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna go ahead and declare it my favorite on the album so far.
25:33
SPEAKER_02: So we responded in a big, big way, Olivia.
25:36
SPEAKER_01: I I think I agree with you uh in in that it might be my my favorite.
25:42
SPEAKER_01: It it true it truly is incredible.
25:44
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, the the playbook is bops followed by nice, soft, smooth ballads.
25:51
SPEAKER_01: That's that's the winning recipe, and it should not be straight from.
25:57
SPEAKER_01: From my point of view, at least on on first listen, it's it seemed like, and this is this is not an accusation here, but because the the song itself doesn't sound anything particular with her voice, it seemed like she was trying to do like a Phoebe Bridgers type of vibe, uh, which I'm sure is why you love it as much as you do.
26:18
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think she she kind of pulled it off.
26:20
SPEAKER_01: It sounds really nice.
26:20
SPEAKER_01: This is a this is a really nice song.
26:24
SPEAKER_02: You you struck a chord with me there.
26:25
SPEAKER_02: I didn't clock that, but now that you mention it, you're 100% right.
26:29
SPEAKER_02: And I love Phoebe.
26:31
SPEAKER_02: So sure, of course.
26:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's that's a layup for me.
26:34
SPEAKER_02: You got me even more into this song, but I'm glad you agree that I felt like it was at least in terms of what I saw online, it wasn't as talked about.
26:41
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't one of the singles.
26:43
SPEAKER_02: It's the last track on the first side of the album, which she has named the Girl Sew in Love section.
26:49
SPEAKER_02: And the flip side of the album, once you turn the record over, is called the You Seem Pretty Sad section.
26:56
SPEAKER_02: Interesting, interesting little dynamic there.
26:59
SPEAKER_02: I haven't dove too deep into the lyrics, and I'm sure that plays a big part in why she made that line of demarcation.
27:06
SPEAKER_01: Well, that makes a lot of sense because I was worried about the fact that we might be kind of front loading this album with with those bangers that we've been talking about, and there we'll get to it, but there is like a little bit of a fall off to me, and uh that makes a lot of sense, actually, if that's kind of what she was going for.
27:24
SPEAKER_01: I that's that yeah, that's good job by you.
27:28
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
27:29
SPEAKER_02: I will say I'm completely in agreement with you.
27:31
SPEAKER_02: Side A is a lot stronger than side B for me.
27:34
SPEAKER_02: So we're in lockstep there.
27:36
SPEAKER_02: We knock side A out, we're on to side B.
27:38
SPEAKER_02: The first song, track eight, is the cure.
27:41
SPEAKER_02: And I this was the second single.
27:44
SPEAKER_02: I really like this one.
27:45
SPEAKER_02: I actually prefer it to drop dead.
27:47
SPEAKER_02: The back half of this song I feel like is amazing.
27:49
SPEAKER_02: The guitar really shines, and it sounds like a cure song.
27:52
SPEAKER_02: So, really, really no notes for me.
27:55
SPEAKER_02: I'm all in.
27:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I actually am not all that familiar with The Cure or Robert Smith or their music.
28:03
SPEAKER_01: So maybe that's maybe that's on me.
28:06
SPEAKER_01: That's uh that's a blind spot.
28:08
SPEAKER_01: I and as it goes, and so maybe that's sort of the reason I'm about to say what I am.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: I'm not quite as as much into this one as you are necessarily.
28:18
SPEAKER_01: It's it's nice, like I I enjoy it, but it lacks like it lacks some character to me, lacks you know, that that pop that we're looking for.
28:27
SPEAKER_01: I can't quite put my finger on it, but I feel like the lyrics are a bit basic and it like we we've been saying all along, as the song goes and towards the end, it definitely gets more fun, especially musically, uh, on this one.
28:41
SPEAKER_01: It there's a lot more going on uh as we as we get down to the uh to the climax of the song.
28:48
SPEAKER_01: However, my wife upon first listen, she clocked this as a uh as a foo fighters song sound.
28:57
SPEAKER_01: Everlong is the foo fighters theme.
29:00
SPEAKER_01: So again, that's you're under you're on the radar here, girl.
29:06
SPEAKER_02: And Collins, before the show, I clocked the same exact thing.
29:10
SPEAKER_02: So me and Annie are in lockstep.
29:13
SPEAKER_02: I said to you, this sounds exactly like Everlong.
29:16
SPEAKER_02: It's the guitar is identical in the beginning.
29:19
SPEAKER_02: It's easy to confuse, like you don't know which one you're listening to for the first 15 seconds.
29:22
SPEAKER_02: That's how similar they sound.
29:24
SPEAKER_02: So tough.
29:26
SPEAKER_02: Just another situation we're monitoring there.
29:29
SPEAKER_02: Might be a might be a songwriting credit head heading Dave Broll's way.
29:33
SPEAKER_02: Track nine is begged.
29:35
SPEAKER_02: I'll let you lead the way on this one.
29:37
SPEAKER_02: I don't think I have like a real firm opinion on this.
29:40
SPEAKER_02: I thought it was good.
29:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I think we're right back to the playbook here.
29:44
SPEAKER_01: You know, we're this is this is a lovely ballad uh following the pop uh songs that we that we had earlier.
29:52
SPEAKER_01: It it reminds me, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.
29:55
SPEAKER_01: It reminds me a little bit of her song Lacey from Guts, which is one of the very few that I am an appreciator of from said album.
30:04
SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's it's a nice song, nice little ballad.
30:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh and you know, like I said, we're back to the playbook, we're we're pounding the rock, and then we catch them deep.
30:15
SPEAKER_02: I like that you have a script that we we need to stick to.
30:18
SPEAKER_02: It seems to be like SR script.
30:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's right.
30:21
SPEAKER_02: I thought this was sweet.
30:22
SPEAKER_02: I will say it kind of fall vibes out of nowhere.
30:25
SPEAKER_02: It seems like a summer pop winner album, and then out of nowhere, it seems like you could be sitting next to a campfire for this one.
30:31
SPEAKER_02: Which when when it smells like yeah, when it smells like leaves falling and pads crunching, that's when these boys shine.
30:39
SPEAKER_02: So you don't need to talk us into a little fall ditty.
30:44
SPEAKER_02: Now, also, I think we're gonna have differing opinions based on your context of what you provided.
30:50
SPEAKER_02: If you're not from too familiar with the cure, the tenth track is What's Wrong With Me.
30:55
SPEAKER_02: And this features Robert Smith, as I mentioned, who clearly is a big inspiration for Olivia.
31:00
SPEAKER_02: He came out with her at Glastonbury last year.
31:03
SPEAKER_02: She put that out as a live record.
31:06
SPEAKER_02: So she's clearly very influenced by the cure and their music.
31:10
SPEAKER_02: First time she's ever featured somebody on a song in the studio is Robert Smith.
31:13
SPEAKER_02: It's a duet.
31:15
SPEAKER_02: I thought they sounded pretty good together.
31:17
SPEAKER_02: I'll say that, but it was a tough start for my guy Robert.
31:21
SPEAKER_02: He came out flatter than a pancake, and I he sounded old.
31:25
SPEAKER_02: His age crept into the music, and it wasn't great when he was just singing by himself.
31:31
SPEAKER_02: I didn't, I didn't love exactly how he sounded, but I thought they were pretty good together.
31:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, like I said earlier, I I don't know Bob, uh, I don't know his work, I don't know the cure.
31:44
SPEAKER_01: Uh this song to me stinks.
31:46
SPEAKER_01: It it just kind of stinks.
31:48
SPEAKER_01: It was it it was I listened to the album three, maybe four times, and the the previous couple, I I just skipped it after maybe the first verse and a half.
32:00
SPEAKER_01: I apologize to the cure fans out there.
32:02
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure there are many.
32:04
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm not sure what what Bob Smith has going on, but it sounded to me like he's trying to do like a David Bowie thing, and it and it just doesn't work for me.
32:13
SPEAKER_01: So I please don't clip this.
32:15
SPEAKER_01: I apologize.
32:16
SPEAKER_01: Uh this one's on me because it's a blind spot, and uh and I'm I'm not this is this this song is not for me.
32:25
SPEAKER_02: Let me let me just tell you this.
32:26
SPEAKER_02: This is not a reflection of the cure.
32:28
SPEAKER_02: This guy's past his pump.
32:30
SPEAKER_02: Collins, they were putting out music in the 80s, okay?
32:32
SPEAKER_02: Sure, just like heaven.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: Show me, show me, show me how you do that trick.
32:37
SPEAKER_02: Banger.
32:38
SPEAKER_02: Friday, I'm in love.
32:39
SPEAKER_02: Ever heard of it?
32:40
SPEAKER_02: I don't I don't know that I have.
32:42
SPEAKER_02: Oh my god, it's just it's they're classics.
32:44
SPEAKER_02: Those are great cure songs.
32:45
SPEAKER_02: This, what he sounded like here, was not good.
32:48
SPEAKER_02: Don't clip this.
32:50
SPEAKER_02: So you I think you would be more of a fan of the cure back then than you would be now.
32:57
SPEAKER_02: Obviously, it doesn't sound like he's doing great, but I would agree it's not my favorite on the album.
33:02
SPEAKER_02: So we can we can quickly move to another track that seems like it's from the playbook again.
33:07
SPEAKER_02: Track 11 is less, it's another nice ballad and a really, really strong spot for her vocals.
33:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, it's right back to running the ball, pounding the rock here.
33:19
SPEAKER_01: Liveron on on the piano, to me, it it just works.
33:22
SPEAKER_01: There's just something about it.
33:24
SPEAKER_01: We have shades of uh logical from her previous album, Guts, which is another one that I like, and one step forward, three steps back, which we mentioned might be just New Year's Day by Taylor Swift.
33:34
SPEAKER_01: But you can just sign me up when she's sitting down at the piano, like I said earlier.
33:38
SPEAKER_01: This is I'm not sure if I'll be a return customer for this one in particular, uh, because it is slightly like more bland than the two songs that I had just mentioned from her previous previous albums, but I just love the sound, it's simple and sweet.
33:53
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we're and we're running the ball again.
33:55
SPEAKER_01: That's what we that's what we wanted.
33:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, ballads are tough to return to, honestly, as standalone songs.
34:03
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes they have to be truly special and you kind of have to be in a mood to listen to them.
34:07
SPEAKER_02: But I do think songs like this fit well when you're listening to it on vinyl, so that that's appreciated.
34:13
SPEAKER_02: And I think this would be a perfect song that you would never think of skipping when it's when it's on the record player, just not one I'm gonna seek out too often on Spotify, I guess would be how I frame it.
34:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's fair.
34:24
SPEAKER_02: Track 12, Expectations.
34:26
SPEAKER_02: Oh god, another pothole on the Pacific Coast Highway, just another earthquake hit, and we fucking flew into this one because I thought we were wrapping up relatively nicely.
34:39
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't really bad or really good in either direction for me.
34:41
SPEAKER_02: It was just kind of like, okay, it's a nice ending to the album, and then nope.
34:45
SPEAKER_02: We got we have this, yeah, whatever this is.
34:47
SPEAKER_01: You know, we were running the ball, we tried to get cute with like a hitch seam, and it's it took went the other way for six.
34:56
SPEAKER_01: This is this song is 100% guts, Sean.
35:00
SPEAKER_01: So if you haven't listened to the guts album, this is that that's pretty much it.
35:04
SPEAKER_01: And Olivia, I I think I speak for the tortured fans community here when I just say, please stop trusting your guts on these.
35:15
SPEAKER_02: So good, that's so good.
35:16
SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's this is why we have them on, folks.
35:18
SPEAKER_02: You're not gonna you're not gonna get it anywhere else.
35:21
SPEAKER_02: I'm telling you, this podcast, there's nobody else that's comparing an Olivia Rodrigo song to a hitch seam going for a pick six.
35:28
SPEAKER_02: This won't happen.
35:29
SPEAKER_02: Just won't happen.
35:30
SPEAKER_02: And there might not be anybody that gets that reference or cares, but I'll tell you what, I fucking loved it.
35:37
SPEAKER_02: So that's why that's why he's the gift that keeps on giving.
35:41
SPEAKER_02: I will not be listening to guts.
35:42
SPEAKER_02: I just won't be.
35:43
SPEAKER_02: If you every bad song on this album you said sounds like guts, I I think I'm good.
35:49
SPEAKER_02: I don't think I need to.
35:50
SPEAKER_01: There's a there's a few good songs on guts, but the expectations is you could slot it right in on that album, and it would it would be perfect on there.
36:00
SPEAKER_02: So wouldn't look out of place.
36:03
SPEAKER_01: No.
36:04
SPEAKER_02: Fit right in, okay.
36:06
SPEAKER_02: Track 13.
36:07
SPEAKER_02: I think this one is actually a beautiful, well-written closing song that shows a lot of maturity.
36:15
SPEAKER_02: And I think it's a completely different artist that wrote this one compared to Deja Vu or Dampi.
36:22
SPEAKER_02: Some of those ones that I think this takes like a really sophisticated, different type of artist, and I think it's cool to see that she grew into that.
36:29
SPEAKER_02: Another one that I'm not so sure is gonna find my way into the rotation, but I think it's a really good song, a good way to end the album.
36:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I I agree.
36:37
SPEAKER_01: That that's very well said.
36:38
SPEAKER_01: It's certainly a more mature uh outlook, especially from the music that she put out five years ago.
36:45
SPEAKER_01: At first, like at first listen, I wasn't a huge fan, but it kind of has grown on me after I gave it a few more tries.
36:53
SPEAKER_01: I do think that she landed the plane properly here with this one.
36:56
SPEAKER_01: I was, like I mentioned to you, I was kind of wishing that she saved one of the more upbeat, uh higher tempo songs for like a little bit later in the album.
37:07
SPEAKER_01: Although I guess that's sort of what expectations was supposed to be at 12 there.
37:12
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, no, this was a solid way to tie on, tie a bow on the whole thing, especially if this is the sad girl section of the album here.
37:21
SPEAKER_01: So that's something that I overlooked there.
37:23
SPEAKER_01: But no, I like I said, I think this was a good way to land the plane.
37:28
SPEAKER_02: I agree.
37:29
SPEAKER_02: I like when artists we could transition this into our conversation to just about what we thought of the album in general, but I like when artists treat the album as a story from front to back, or as at least in they frame it in a way where the listening experience front to back is smooth and it's it seems like it all fits and the puzzle pieces fit together.
37:50
SPEAKER_02: I think that's when an album really stands out.
37:53
SPEAKER_02: I can't say that this one was extremely good at doing that, but I do think she landed the plane correctly.
37:58
SPEAKER_02: I thought she started the album well.
37:59
SPEAKER_02: I agree with you.
38:00
SPEAKER_02: Some of the structure in terms of the songs in the back half kind of lost me.
38:04
SPEAKER_02: She might have front-loaded it a bit too much.
38:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
38:07
SPEAKER_01: Which that's how I feel too.
38:09
SPEAKER_02: But but I do agree.
38:10
SPEAKER_02: It was there was a a clear drop-off after track seven, in my opinion, in terms of quality.
38:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I I agree with that.
38:18
SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't think that you can say that she totally missed the mark on on in that regard, but yeah, I think a better a better spacing out of of those higher uh tempo tracks were would have been a little bit more conducive to the listening experience for sure.
38:36
SPEAKER_02: I want to come just quickly get your thoughts overall.
38:40
SPEAKER_02: Did it exceed expectations?
38:42
SPEAKER_02: Was it better than you were expecting?
38:44
SPEAKER_02: Was it better than guts?
38:45
SPEAKER_02: Was it better than sour?
38:47
SPEAKER_02: I want to know where it stands for you.
38:49
SPEAKER_02: Well, eon's better than guts.
38:51
SPEAKER_01: Uh it it's still I've guts is I hope there's no big guts super fans out there because uh give me a call, we could talk about it.
39:01
SPEAKER_01: Um, it it still to me falls quite short of sour, but uh it's a very enjoyable listen.
39:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh I I liked it a lot.
39:10
SPEAKER_01: It actually kind of sent me back to listen to Sour, which I really appreciate.
39:14
SPEAKER_01: And no, yeah, I I my my overall thoughts were were positive.
39:19
SPEAKER_01: I left enjoying the album.
39:22
SPEAKER_02: I think I became an Olivia Rodrigo fan, which was something I wasn't before.
39:28
SPEAKER_01: So that's good.
39:29
SPEAKER_01: In terms of uh like what I was expecting, I wasn't I didn't know what to expect after the kind of opposites uh that sour and guts provided.
39:40
SPEAKER_01: So I was uh pleasantly I I don't know if I should say surprised, but I was happy with what I received.
39:48
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's like we're ordering an Italian restaurant that kind of just opened and the previous place that that it just took its spot was sort of a shithole, and then and but you get a nice proper plate of uh you know linguini with vodka sauce, and it's you know, it's it it it leaves you very happy.
40:10
SPEAKER_01: You didn't know what to expect from your vodka, but it's it's a proper dish.
40:17
SPEAKER_02: It's to take that one step further, it's like it used to be a phenomenal Italian joint, and then those owners moved to a better spot of town, and what replaced it was the shithole.
40:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
40:29
SPEAKER_02: That's yeah, and then they got no business.
40:32
SPEAKER_02: So then what moved in where you're cautiously optimistic.
40:35
SPEAKER_02: You've been excited and you've been burned.
40:37
SPEAKER_02: So there you go.
40:39
SPEAKER_02: I think all the pop albums now that I listen to, I I try to I've tried to rank them in the context of my favorites, and especially you have to do it by time frame too.
40:49
SPEAKER_02: You can't really compare an 80s pop album to today's music, it's all different.
40:52
SPEAKER_02: But the my favorite album from last year was The Art of Loving, Olivia Dean.
40:56
SPEAKER_02: Thought that was a nearly flawless album, and it did the exact thing I was talking about, with like it flowed perfectly in terms of a story, start to finish.
41:03
SPEAKER_02: There wasn't a single skip for me.
41:04
SPEAKER_02: So what this album was unfortunately unable to do, there were a couple of landmines that we talked about where if you have that on the record player, you just can't get around it, you're listening to those songs, and I don't want to.
41:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that's that's not good.
41:18
SPEAKER_02: So that's gonna keep me from scoring this album extremely highly, but I do think I really enjoyed it.
41:24
SPEAKER_02: I liked it.
41:24
SPEAKER_02: Like I said, I became a fan of hers.
41:26
SPEAKER_02: I thought it was a lot better than anything I've really heard from her in the past.
41:29
SPEAKER_02: I will go ahead and listen to Sour for you because if you think that Hylia that I have to give it a proper listen, I probably shouldn't.
41:35
SPEAKER_01: That's one that there's no skips, and and you could yeah, to me.
41:38
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
41:40
SPEAKER_02: Well, I will I will put that aside in the record club for you one day.
41:43
SPEAKER_01: If you come on the record club, we can I I kind of actually forgot the and I owe you uh a thank you because I kind of actually forgot how much I liked that one until I was uh kind of diving in for this podcast, and I was going back and I was like, damn, I really like sour.
41:59
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't have that.
42:01
SPEAKER_01: I had maybe uh one or two others in mind that I could have done on on Record Club, but sour might it might have to be the one after talking about this with you.
42:09
SPEAKER_01: Well, I like that.
42:10
SPEAKER_02: You have that reserved in case you want to do it.
42:13
SPEAKER_02: So that's fine.
42:14
SPEAKER_02: Now, the moment listeners have been waiting for, we have to score the album, of course, zero to a hundred.
42:19
SPEAKER_02: We try to keep it in the context of letter grades as well.
42:21
SPEAKER_02: So we give it a score, but then is it an A minus?
42:24
SPEAKER_02: Is it a C plus?
42:25
SPEAKER_02: We'll we'll see what you think.
42:26
SPEAKER_02: I'll lead off because I'm not the preeminent Olivia Rodrigo expert here.
42:32
SPEAKER_02: I will give this a really good, solid 82.
42:37
unknown: Okay.
42:38
SPEAKER_02: B minus.
42:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
42:39
SPEAKER_02: B minus.
42:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:41
SPEAKER_01: I I was sort of right on the same wavelength, and I agree with everything that that you had said.
42:47
SPEAKER_01: Like there it's strong, and then there's a few landmines in there that really kind of bring the entire experience down.
42:56
SPEAKER_01: I was thinking more on the I'm gonna go with a 78.
43:02
SPEAKER_01: Um, so you know, if it's pass fail, it's it it easily passes the test for sure.
43:08
SPEAKER_01: It's I guess that would that would equate to a C plus, but it's bordering on a B minus as well for me.
43:13
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, no, I think it's 78 out of 100, and that's you know, and that's with that's with three problems on three math problems on there that she totally just she might have skipped the question.
43:28
SPEAKER_02: She didn't she didn't show her work at all.
43:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we gave her paper back for corrections.
43:33
SPEAKER_02: She said, No, I'm not doing them.
43:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
43:39
SPEAKER_01: She illegally brought the calculator in, actually, as a matter of fact.
43:42
SPEAKER_02: That's good stuff.
43:43
SPEAKER_02: I think that's pretty fitting too, because you've seen her at the highest of highs, in your opinion, of what her best sounds like.
43:50
SPEAKER_02: So you have, in my opinion, if you were to score sour something in the 90s, yes, then this one falls obviously short of that.
43:57
SPEAKER_02: So that that provides good context for why you gave it a 78.
44:00
SPEAKER_02: For me, it was like the best I've heard from her.
44:02
SPEAKER_02: So I was very happy able to give her a grade in the B's.
44:06
SPEAKER_02: Collins, I think you smashed out of the park in your record club debut here.
44:11
SPEAKER_02: Great stuff from you, great analogies, as always.
44:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, had a lot of fun.
44:15
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you having me on.
44:16
SPEAKER_01: This was uh a good time.
44:19
SPEAKER_01: Uh, hopefully, maybe Taylor Swift can put something out that that we can break down.
44:24
SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, why limit ourselves?
44:25
SPEAKER_01: Let's let's get crazy with it.
44:28
SPEAKER_02: You you have right of first refusal for all Taylor Swift music.
44:32
SPEAKER_02: You know that that comes with the territory of being a founding father of the pop of the program here.
44:36
SPEAKER_01: No, thanks for having me.
44:37
SPEAKER_01: I I appreciate it.
44:38
SPEAKER_01: This is a a solid album, and I'm happy to uh make my debut with a with a pop girly.
44:44
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't know any other way.
44:46
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for joining me, listeners.
44:48
SPEAKER_02: Thank you as always for tuning in, and until next time, take care of the city.