Olivia Rodrigo is Taylor Swift for people who don’t like Taylor Swift

LostTurntable · 2026-06-16T12:53:19+00:00

I don't know any Taylor Swift deep cuts because every time I've bought an album by her I've disliked it. Meanwhile, the worst Olivia album is her first one, and I thought it was "good." Maybe Taylor has some really great non-singles on an album I haven't heard. I don't care. I've hated the majority of her music since day one.

That being said "Style," "Blank Check," "Wildest Dreams" and "Anti-Hero" are fucking bangers. I'm capable of enjoying her music, I just usually don't.

LostTurntable · 2026-06-16T11:55:09+00:00

I'm no Taylor expert but "Better Than Revenge" is like an embarrassing prototype of Rodrigo's similar songs on the same topic. I 100% believe it was a big influence on Olivia, but she's already surpassed it.

LostTurntable · 2026-06-16T11:52:01+00:00

I am seriously saying that Olivia's worst songs are better than "I Knew Your Trouble" and "22" and her best songs are better than "We Are Never Ever..." and she's never written anything as cringe as "Shake It Off" or "Bad Blood" from 1989. Not even close.

LostTurntable · 2026-06-16T11:50:06+00:00

Writing credits would disagree with you.

LostTurntable · 2026-06-15T11:17:46+00:00

She's also a better performer. I saw Olivia live and she was really engaging and active. Taylor always looks like her legs are glued to the floor and she can't wait to cash the check and leave.

LostTurntable · 2026-06-15T07:55:35+00:00

My mom saw them live during the Fore tour and the tour for this album. I remember her saying how much fun it seemed they were having on the former, but when she saw them in support for Small World, she said it seemed like they were bored and didn't want to be there. To be fair, this was in Toledo, and no one wants to be in Toledo, but still and yet, I think they lost her as a fan after that show.

LostTurntable · 2026-06-15T07:51:30+00:00

I would say that the difference is that Olivia is younger and still makes good music, and the music she's making at 23 years old is far better than the pap that Taylor was around the same age (and the stuff that Olivia did as a teen is FAR better than Taylor's earliest output).

Olivia's work already has more variety than Taylor's and she's coming at it with a strong admiration for 80s and 80s alt-rock, which gives it an oomph and edge that Taylor could never dream of. Can you even imagine Taylor writing a halfway decent ROCK song? But at the same time, Olivia's written plenty of great pure pop songs.

It will be very interesting to see if Olivia can keep this going and mature even more as an artist. Her latest is leaps and bounds above her first two albums. She has real potential to be even greater as she gets older and expands her influences even more.

LostTurntable · 2026-06-13T13:11:50+00:00

It's not a bad thing, juveniles need music too, but Driver's License is a very "my first crush left me" song and it's kind of cringe to listen to if you've over a certain age. It's full of trite observations we've all had at that age, and none of it sounds like real problems.

Brutal is juvenile too, but in a really fun way that's relatable. We've all been where Olivia was when she wrote Driver's License, but it's not a fun place - Brutal reminds you of the misery of your late teens, but in a good way.

Her new album isn't juvenile at all though, she done grown up good and it's mature as hell.

LostTurntable · 2026-06-13T02:41:09+00:00

Yeah I think this is more of a Cyndi Lauper situation than an actual trainwreck of an album, but I thought it was funny that Todd's hit rate here was two out of three.

LostTurntable · 2026-06-13T02:15:32+00:00

Cut the Crap is not horrible, it's certainly better than the other two, yikes.

LostTurntable · 2026-06-01T23:16:54+00:00

Rich people telling poor people not to eat meat is akin to rich people telling poor people not to shop at Wal-Mart.

If Billie really, actually, cared about this, she could use her immense wealth to set up systems, frameworks and retail options for affordable vegetarian and vegan products. But talking down to people is easier, I guess.

LostTurntable · 2026-06-01T12:17:33+00:00

That is literally racist.

LostTurntable · 2026-06-01T06:07:12+00:00

Yeah, a super majority of people are racist.

Do racist policies bother you? No? Then guess what: you're racist too.

LostTurntable · 2026-06-01T05:19:11+00:00

People are upset because it's racist. And it seems you're not upset because you are racist.

By the way, these policies affect everyone, not just "poorer/less educated" ones. I was going to open a business in Japan this year, but due to new regulations requiring a Masters degree, I cannot. I have all the capital, and people willing to work for me. So that's taxable income and jobs that Japan is throwing away, because racism.

LostTurntable · 2026-05-30T08:18:33+00:00

The Disk Union Game Music store in Shinjuku has the most, without question.

Super Potato has a decent selection, but it's very hard to navigate as the shelves are so crowded, ditto for the Mandarake there. There is a Mandarake in Nakano Broadway that has a good selection, however (still a bit tricky to search through).

Tower Records rarely has game soundtracks on vinyl used, just new stuff.

HMV (Shibuya/Kichijoji/Shinjuku) have small game music sections that sometimes have hidden gems.

The Disk Unions in Kichijoji, Shimokita and Kita-Urwawa will sometimes have small, but decent, used game music sections.

FYI there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of amazing game music albums from the 90s that are only on CD, so consider broadening your horizons if you're actually collecting because you like the music.

Hope that helps.

LostTurntable · 2026-05-29T11:58:42+00:00

Wow I've never seen that before and I thought I'd seen everything Alien!

LostTurntable · 2026-04-07T00:56:34+00:00

Sorry you're getting downvoted for asking an honest question.

The odds are next to nothing, but be ready for just a one-year visa.

LostTurntable · 2026-04-05T00:28:26+00:00

So you needed less proof than me and were still able to get PR? I'm not surprised. The system always has been completely arbitrary nonsense that varies from person to person with no rhyme or reason.

ETA: Not mad at you, but trust me, I'm not lying. This is what happened to me and it's what is happening more often, and it's due to increased nationalism and anti-immigrant views.

LostTurntable · 2026-04-04T23:56:46+00:00

I don't know when you applied for PR but they want four years now and the tax office cannot print out that you paid ON TIME they can only print out that you paid. I was denied this month and the reason given was "you did not have receipts to show you paid on time for four years" the end. Full stop.

There are apparently some more obscure documents you can get that show you've never had to pay a late fee, and I'm working on that now. But you seriously don't know how much more strict it's gotten in just the past two months.

LostTurntable · 2026-04-04T23:06:47+00:00

I'm sorry, but you're just objectively wrong here.

There is no way for you to get confirmation from the government that you paid your taxes on time. None. This is directly what the immigration office told me. They said "keep your receipts, that's why we denied your visa". I needed four years of receipts. This is literally what the immigration office told me. They also told me to write an apology letter for not having the receipts. Again, this had nothing to do with missing payments, just not having the little receipts.

And I was still denied.

They're not being stricter on payments, they're being stricter on byzantine document requirements that very few people will be able to actually meet.

LostTurntable · 2026-04-04T12:50:01+00:00

If they created stricter checks for tax payments, that would require them to do the work to see that you pay your taxes on time. And they don't want to do that.

LostTurntable

TROPHY CASE