Oh Olivia!

Last year I went on a quest around the Walmarts of Florida looking for Metallica Records. In total I must have been into over 10 different Walmart stores. We went to so many that we even learnt the layout and could walk straight to the record section in seconds, as the store layouts were all pretty much the same. But one thing I noticed pretty quickly was that every store had several copies of a record by Olivia Rodrigo. I couldn't help but notice it due to the cover, and I just started to get annoyed that it was in every store, whilst the Metallica recods were few and far between. Well, at the time I had literally no idea who Olivia Rodrigo was, but then in one hotel one evening we had the TV on and Jimmy Fallon mentioned that he had Olivia as his guest that night. Suddenly it felt like Olivia Rodrigo was absolutely everywhere.

Well, a month or so after I got home I decided to check out what her music sounded like, and instantly found it kinda catchy. I downloaded the second album, 'GUTS', and pretty soon it became a daily play for me. Without a doubt, 'Bad Idea Right?' is a super catchy song and there was one evening back in February where I listened to it about 5 times in a row. So when I ended up back in the States in April for a few days, and we were near a Walmart, I figured I'd go back and grab a copy. Day one, Walmart number one, and there was a copy available.

As with all records in the current day and age, this was pressed on loads of different colours, but I wanted the Walmart version simply because I quite like the Walmart exclusive stickers. But also because if I ever decide to sell, it should fetch a good price in the UK as we don't have Walmart over here.

Once I had bought this one, I figured I may as well also then buy the first album, 'SOUR'... except, all of a sudden, it was nowhere to be found. Over the next couple of days we popped into about 3 more Walmarts, and unlike the previous trip in December, this record was suddenly impossible to find. What the hell was going on?

Well, a couple more days later and we wento to another Walmart with Geoff & Jenn to also walk away empty handed. Then, later in the day, we used the Walmart online stock checker to find a Walmart that had the record. Mission complete.

Coincidentally, the day I bought this record was actually Record Store Day. Kinda funny that the only shop that sold records that I went into on RSD was a Walmart. In the end it was an interesting shop, as they were also selling a Misfits shirt, a magazine about turkey hunting, and all kinds of other fascinating junk.

After I got home I got around to listening to 'SOUR' and it also quickly hit my daily playlist. I think that on balance it's not as good as 'GUTS', but there are still a lot of great songs on there. Good For You is incredibly catchy and could be her best song to date.

Normal service will be resumed shortly.