Singer Paulette McWilliams on Her Years With Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, and Steely Dan Lana Del Rey, Chemtrails Over the Country Club Ulven summed up these songs in Rolling Stone as “a lot of mental noise,” from “Serotonin” (produced by Finneas) to the booty-call malaise of “Midnight Love.” But she’s got a great way of getting right to the point: “You stupid bitch, can’t you see / The perfect one for you is me.” R.S. As Girl on Red, she’s built a loyal following since her 2018 “I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend,” building up to her long-awaited debut If I Could Make It Go Quiet. Norwegian bedroom-pop star Marie Ulven goes deep on loneliness, anxiety, lust, rage, jealousy, and all the other agonies of that crazy little thing called love.
“She probably gives you butterflies.” Just as “Deja Vu” and “Good 4 U” proved Rodrigo was going to be much more than a one-and-done phenom with a viral hit about careening through heartbreak, Sour confirms this is just the start of her story, where she expertly rides the wave of teenage turbulence and emotional chaos down any road she chooses.
“But she’s beautiful/she’s kind,” she admits on “Happier,” one of the record’s sparkly highlights. In the same vein as “Drivers License,” the ballads here tackle heartbreak with grace - even when she’s parting ways with an ex, she resists the urge to tear their new partner down. Whereas most artists build to their breakup album, carefully laying down the foundations of their future devastation, Rodrigo has already skipped ahead to her Tunnel of Love (ahem, there’s even a song titled “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back”). This year has already given us a slew of excellent releases, including breakthrough debuts from Olivia Rodrigo, Arlo Parks and Girl In Red, revelatory R&B from Jazmine Sullivan and Dawn Richard, thrilling indie-rock from Julien Baker and Dry Cleaning, and excellent new work from reliable stars like Eric Church, the Foo Fighters, and Lana Del Rey.
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