#can you call him a vampire nepo baby if he was already That Bitch before getting armand's exclusive juice

[fascinationstreetmp3]

daniel is someone whos lived a full life, is very experienced, and already had some fairly extensive knowledge of vampire life and society before being turned. plus he's got a naturally sharp mind, a talent for relentlessly digging under people's skin to an uncomfortable degree, and the ability to switch off his moral compass and sense of self-preservation to get what he wants.

so then you add to that cocktail pure, undiluted ancient blood from a half-millennia old vampire, and you've created probably one of the most intimidating fledglings possible. and i think he's gonna be so annoying about it

[lunapaper]

Album Review: 'GUTS' - Olivia Rodrigo

I admit, I didn’t jump on the Olivia Rodrigo train right away. 

I kinda dismissed her debut single ‘driver’s license’ as nothing more than a syrupy, overwrought pop ballad from a Disney star looking to break out into the mainstream. Even now, I’m still not the biggest fan of it. 

But then came ‘good 4 u.’ 

While GAYLE and Leah Kate traded in generic nursery rhyme hooks and Travis Barker became the go-to guy for pop punk cred, Rodrigo rocked out. Like, really rocked out, offering up razor-sharp riffage and a true scream-along chorus that didn’t come straight out of a kindergarten classroom (or an eight-person committee to write, including a nepo baby). 

Rodrigo’s sickly-sweet taste for revenge made GAYLE and Leah Kate’s respective odes to a scummy ex sound like a temper tantrum in the middle of a supermarket, declaring him a ‘damn sociopath’ while crying on the bathroom floor, almost relishing in the breakdown. Fuck, even the profanity is used to better effect. 

It might’ve been a facsimile of Paramore’s ‘Misery Business,’ but it’s a damn good one, something Rodrigo’s peers didn’t seem to get. So much of a homage to the track is ‘good 4 u,’ that Hayley Williams and former Paramore guitarist Josh Farro even received writing credits on the track.  

Rodrigo further proves herself a purveyor of fine angst on her second album. Where her 2021 debut SOUR was mired in ballads, preoccupied with the same bastard ex, GUTS reignites the bratty spirit of ‘good 4 u’ and other brilliant tracks like ‘brutal,’ amping up the snark in deliciously unhinged style while going straight for the jugular, offering wit galore.  

One of the best examples of the this is recent single, ‘get him back!’ Recalling Best Damn Thing-era Avril with a side of Sleigh Bells, Rodrigo delivers her witty repartee in a disaffected drawl akin to Beck’s ‘Loser,’ flipping between both meanings of the phrase: One minute she wants to make lunch for her dirtbag ex, next she’s ready to deliver him an uppercut.  

Previous single ‘bad idea right?’ also dabbles in the sing-speak, Rodrigo once again succumbing to the greasy charms of an ex, much to the disappointment of her friends. But can’t two people just reconnect? 

‘all-american bitch’ (which may or may not be a critique of the Disney corporate machine) offers up ‘Just a Girl’-esque commentary with a modern twist. Obliterating the soft, insecure everygirl we first got to know on ‘driver’s license,’ the singer turns motifs of retro Americana, like the Kennedys, soda cans for hair rollers and even The Craft into snark fodder, giving us one of the best rock tracks of recent years. ‘ballad of a homeschooled girl’ is sludgy and equally disillusioned, Rodrigo bemoaning the sheltered adolescence that’s left her socially stunted (‘I talkеd to this hot guy, swore I was his type/Guess that he was akin' out with boys, like, the whole night’).  

Even the ballads have improved. ‘lacy’ toys with sapphic lust as Rodrigo seemingly both loathes and lusts after the ‘dazzling starlet, Bardot incarnate’ and her wily ways, the envy consuming her.  

‘vampire,’ on the other hand, makes a lot more sense in context in the wider context of the album. I wasn’t feeling it upon first listen (It just builds and builds, and then... nothing?), but there is beauty in its melodrama: The aching vocals, the loping strings, the hint of glam rock bravado before strangely pulling back.  

The track also echoes Rodrigo’s sheltered upbringing, the singer taking her breakup with the so-called ‘famefucker’ pretty hard, which – let’s face it – was never gonna be an affair to remember. Why would you even bother to dedicate such a gutwrenching ballad to this fuccboi in the first place, it’s more than he deserves!  

Piano finale, ‘teenage dream,’ however, does give us a full rock opera crescendo, Rodrigo looking to the future and already feeling weary at the thought of ageing out of the Disney demographic.  

GUTS falls back on the schmaltz of SOUR at times, namely on the atmospheric 80s pop of ‘pretty isn’t pretty,’ which, although pretty, treads well-worn territory with its lament of impossible beauty standards. Some of the lyrics also feel cliched and even absurd (‘skin like puff pastry,’ really? Is Lacy really flaky? Is she gonna crumble to the touch?)  

And yet, Rodrigo’s sophomore record is an incredible triumph for a young artist, self-assured with a clear creative vision, her songs more than just a bunch of throwback jams. She’s a rather astute rock fan, professing her love for Sleater-Kinney, Depeche Mode and Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill in recent interviews. Delightfully kooky sonic touches, like the sing-speak and the vocal yelps on ‘love is embarrassing’ also add to the album’s charm, the kind of fun idiosyncrasies a soulless conglomerate like Disney would’ve tried to iron out. 

Where GUTS really excels, though, is its focus on defiant and unabashed female rage. Like Alanis, Fiona and Gwen before her, Rodrigo is snarling and seething, presenting a sardonic, suffocating and sometimes soul-crushing view of womanhood in the public eye. I can’t wait for when she calls the world bullshit at the next MTV Awards.  

She also follows in the footsteps of other artists like Hayley Williams and Billie Eilish in recent years who’ve centered their work around the beauty of female rage, stemming from sexism, heartbreak and mistreatment in the industry. 

‘I’ve experienced a lot of emotional turmoil over having all these feelings of rage and dissatisfaction that I felt like I couldn’t express, especially in my job,’ she recently told the Guardian. ‘I’ve always felt like: you can never admit it, be so grateful all the time, so many people want this position. And that causes a lot of repressed feelings. I’ve always struggled with wanting to be this perfect American girl and the reality of not feeling like that all the time.’ 

Funny, fierce and free of any ego, it takes a lot of guts to release a record like GUTS as your second album, at a time when rock and even pop feel so sanitised and dull. I guess I’m now fully on board the Olivia Rodrigo train, toot, toot...