![]() ![]() At NPR Music, critic Lindsay Zoladz makes a strong argument that Rodrigo’s new album Sour, most especially “Good 4 U,” is mining an emo and pop-punk vibe, channeling such Millennial-beloved all-male bands as Brand New or New Found Glory. The song’s punk-turned-pop feminine energy evokes 2021 Rock Hall inductees the Go-Go’s or the ’90s alt-grrrl stylings of peak Alanis Morissette. Like Rodrigo’s “Drivers License,” which had music critics, this No. 1 hits columnist included, drawing comparisons ranging from Taylor Swift to Lorde to Billie Eilish, “Good 4 U” has enough signifiers baked into it to make scribes reach for their rock encyclopedias. “Good 4 U” is the most up-the-middle rock song to top the Hot 100 in a decade or more. ![]() The chorus has the kind of pop symmetry Max Martin would endorse: “Well, good for you!/ You look HAP-py and/ HEAL-thy/ NOT me!/ If you ever cared to ask.” And then, heading into the bridge-I’m going to credit mix engineer Mitch McCarthy with this-there’s this three-note guitar riff that’s allowed to ring out by itself before the full guitar solo starts, a kind of classic-alt-rock dopamine rush I haven’t heard since … maybe the Gin Blossoms? This song may not be rap-rock, but Olivia has flow. The verse lyrics are syncopated to tumble out of Rodrigo’s mouth. ![]() There’s a little vocal stinger-a multivoiced female sigh, likely an overdubbed pile of Rodrigos-that connects the track sonically back to the dreaminess of “Deja Vu” without copying anything. It’s quite possibly my favorite bass kickoff to a song since Selena Gomez’s 2017 hit “ Bad Liar”-and unlike Gomez, Nigro and Rodrigo aren’t sampling their bassline from Talking Heads. It opens with an uncluttered five-note bassline, played by Rodrigo’s producer-cowriter Dan Nigro, that’s a hook all by itself. “The punky presence and crunchy guitars were maybe a little less convincing than ‘Driver’s License,’” wrote a reporter for Australian music station Triple J. I wasn’t alone reviews for “Good 4 U” were positive but slightly less effusive. The night Rodrigo played SNL, “Good” came off as loads of fun but felt like a bit of a reach-a newcomer trying on a different outfit to show breadth. Given how different “Deja” was from “License,” it was impressive it did even that well. While “Deja Vu” did very well for a coattails hit, it didn’t duplicate the chart performance of its predecessor and fell out of the winners’ circle even before “License” did. Just six weeks after that, the hypercaffeinated “Good 4 U” crash-lands at No. 1. Three months after her torch ballad “Drivers License” debuted at No. 1 (and spent eight straight weeks on top, the longest run of any single so far this year), it was followed by the ethereal, midtempo art-pop of “ Deja Vu,” which debuted at No. 8-making Rodrigo the first new artist in Hot 100 history to send her first two singles straight onto the Top 10. By contrast, Rodrigo is now only three singles deep into her music career, all three tracks placed high on the charts, and none sounds like the others. ![]()
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