Riding high on the wave of her successful first three singles and a well-received performance on Saturday Night Live, teen singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo dropped her debut album, Sour, ten days ago.
Sour is a solid debut, synthesizing Rodrigo’s many influences into a sound all her own. She hopscotches between acoustic ballads, punk and pop, and sounds fully at home with each.
Here’s a live version of Bob Dylan’s ‘Masters of War,’ recorded in 1963 at Town Hall in New York City. This song appears in Martin Scorsese’s 2005 documentary No Direction Home and later on the Bootleg Series release of that film’s soundtrack.
Those who read my criticism of Jackson Browne’s overtly political songs might wonder why I’m not similarly dismissive of this track. And it’s a fair question.
It’s been more than ten years since I last featured a song by Owsley, the stage name of singer-songwriter and power pop savant Will Owsley. I dedicated three posts to him in October of 2010 after learning that he had died by suicide in April of that year.
Reading those posts now, I was amused to see frequent commenter Dana lamenting the lack of Jackson Browne songs on the blog. He finally got his wish a decade later!
Today wraps up a surprisingly decent two weeks of ‘What the Kids Are Listening To.’ It might be my imagination, but I feel like the top of the Billboard Hot 100 has gotten more listenable over the past couple of years.
I’m skipping this week’s #10 (Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Drivers License’) and #11 (The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’) because I’ve already featured them. That brings me to #12, which is Rodrigo again with her second single, ‘Deja Vu.’
Cardi B made history with ‘Up,’ the song currently at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100.
When the track hit #1 earlier this year, it made her the first female rapper in history to score two solo #1 hits. The first, of course, was her breakout ‘Bodak Yellow.’ Whatever you think of her music (and I don’t think much of it), you have to give her credit for breaking new ground.
Meet Me In Montauk 