Below are my album and book reviews for the week of January 14-20th. I watched several movies this week, so I will share those reviews in a separate post!
Album: GUTS by Olivia Rodrigo
My Thoughts:
First of all, I want to say thank you to my friend who recently recommended that I listen to GUTS, Olivia Rodrigo’s second album. I was also curious to listen specifically to “get him back!” from this album after another friend sang it at karaoke last weekend. Everyone was singing along with her, and I felt pretty out of the loop.
I enjoyed Rodrigo’s first album, Sour, but I think GUTS is the album that has officially turned me into an Olivia Rodrigo fan. I’m nearing 30 years old, and so I don’t completely relate to a lot of the things that Rodrigo sings about, but her music does take me back to a different time in my life. Transitioning from your teenage years into adulthood is exciting, but awkward. It’s also a time when many of us experience our first heartbreaks. I think Rodrigo’s music perfectly encapsulates these experiences.
It’s hard to define GUTS as just one musical genre. It’s tempting to say that this is overall a pop-punk album, but it also has some quiet moments scattered throughout, like “lacy,” “making the bed,” “logical,” “the grudge,” and “teenage dream.” Whenever I hear Rodrigo sing folk style songs, like “lacy” or even “Can’t Catch Me Now” from The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes soundtrack, she reminds me a lot of the Swedish folk duo, First Aid Kit. Rodrigo has a beautiful voice, and I actually really hope that she releases a folk album someday.
We all have music that we grew up listening to that takes us back in time whenever we listen to it. I think it’s really special that a newer artist, like Rodrigo, can also create a feeling of nostalgia and make me travel back in time to when I was 19. I will continue to follow Olivia Rodrigo’s career and I look forward to hearing more from this blossoming young artist.
My Rating:
Favorite Songs:
Book: Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Summary:
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid is a novel that revolves around the rise and fall of a fictional 1970s rock band called Daisy Jones & The Six. The story is presented in an oral history format, with different characters recounting their experiences and perspectives on the band’s journey. The narrative explores the dynamics within the group, the relationships between the band members, and the challenges they face in the music industry. At the center of the story are the enigmatic Daisy Jones and the charismatic Billy Dunne, the lead singer of The Six. The book delves into themes of love, creativity, and the cost of fame, offering a nostalgic and immersive look at the music scene of that era.
Summary written by ChatGPT when prompted “Summarize the book ‘Daisy Jones and the Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid”
My Thoughts:
One of my friends is a big fan of Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks. One day she excitedly told me about a miniseries that she was watching on Amazon Prime that was loosely based on Fleetwood Mac. She told me that Stevie Nicks even publicly shared on her Instagram how much she liked the show.
When I looked up the show, Daisy Jones and the Six, and I saw that it’s based on a book. I decided to read the book before watching the show. I still haven’t seen the show, but wow, the book was great!
Daisy Jones and the Six is written in an oral history style, which is a narrative style that was completely new to me. Basically, it reads as if you are watching a rock documentary where each member of the band is interviewed about different critical moments of their time in the band and they share things from their own perspectives.
I bought a physical copy of this book, and the end includes a transcript of a conversation with the author, Taylor Jenkins Reid. She shares that the variability of memory ended up being a big part of this novel. The characters are all looking back at events in their lives that happened decades earlier. When you throw in drugs and alcohol, memories become even murkier. The story becomes almost like a puzzle as you piece together the narratives from all the different characters. As a reader, you have to decide which narrators are more trustworthy than others. Jenkins Reid shares that, for instance, you cannot fully trust Daisy Jones, “We can only listen to the story she’s been telling herself about it for the past forty years. And I’ve found that’s the more interesting story–the stories people tell themselves about themselves” (Reid, 2022).
If you’re interested in 70s rock and roll, it’s history, and you’re ok with reading a novel that’s written in an unconventional style, then I think you will really enjoy this novel. I found the oral history writing style to be so refreshing and engaging. I will definitely be on the lookout for more books written in this way, and I plan to read another of Jenkins Reid’s books in the near future (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo).
My Rating:
References
OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (Jan 21 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat
Reid, T. J. (2022). Daisy Jones & The Six: A novel. Ballantine Books.
One Per Week 
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