u/pllcat11

Has anyone noticed that Olivia’s Lego sets cost far more in the UK than the US? I looked into the pricing comparisons and here’s the breakdown:

Guitar: $119- should be £89.76 in UK- costs £109 in UK (about an extra £20)

Secret storage: $79.99- should be £60.34 in UK- costs £69.99 in UK (about an extra £10)

Concert moon: $49.99- should be £37.71 in UK- costs £44.99 in UK (about an extra £7)

Flower bouquet: $49.99- should be £37.71 in UK- costs £39.99 in UK (about an extra £2- not that bad)

Vinyl: $34.99- should be £26.39 in UK- costs £24.99 in UK (saves about £1.50 yayyyy)

Maybe this is standard but it seems very unfair that for the majority of items, those of us in the UK are paying far more. Surely the prices should have been matched more closely to make it fairer? I doubt Olivia was in charge of this but whoever was seems to have made a massive oversight. I feel kind of disappointed as I don’t think international fans should be paying so much more for the same items, especially as if you buy from the LEGO website they aren’t even shipping from the US. I absolutely love the Lego sets and still plan to buy them but I wish the pricing was fairer.

Does anyone else feel the same?

Just want to preface this by saying I love Olivia and I really hope people don’t think I’m trying to hate on her. I think she’s such a talented artist and I love her and her music so so much. Also, at the end of the day, what she does with her career is up to her and her and her team know far better than me!!

However, I listened to the album today and I have a (maybe unpopular?) opinion. I actually think Olivia is far better at non ballads. To me her strength lies in more upbeat songs, especially her funnier songs. Expectations, Maggots for Brains, U + Me = Love and My Way were all stand outs of the album for me and they all similarly were funny, a bit out there and really let her personality show. Songs like Bad Idea Right?, Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl, Love is Embarrassing and Get Him Back do a very similar thing and were all standouts of Guts too (though I would argue Guts is an overall strong cohesive project and no tracks carry the album)

This might seem a strange comparison but I actually think Olivia is very similar to Sabrina Carpenter in the sense that they both shine on songs where they have fun and don’t take themselves too seriously. Sabrina similarly (though to a more notable extent) is almost always not nearly as strong on her ballads as her more upbeat songs. While both Olivia and Sabrina have exceptions (Driver’s License, Traitor and The Cure for Olivia and Because I Liked a Boy, We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night and Skinny Dipping for Sabrina) their ballads tend to be just good like nothing offensive but nothing special.

I’d argue on each of her albums so far Olivia has had one standout breakup ballad and the rest have just been less good versions. On Sour it was Driver’s License, on Guts it was Vampire and on Girl So In Love it’s The Cure. I’d say Olivia’s ballads are at their best when they’re not about relationships. On Guts, Pretty isn’t Pretty, Making The Bed and Teenage Dream run circles around Logical and Scared of My Guitar. I honestly don’t think she needs to move away from ballads entirely, I think she just needs to do more ballads that aren’t about relationships. I’m not particularly sure why her non relationship related ones are usually better, it may just be a coincidence, or she may just be better at conveying feelings about insecurity, growing up etc in a ballad format than she is relationships??

Also just to be clear, I’m not saying Olivia shouldn’t write about relationships. I think it’s very weird when people think relationships are somehow a lesser topic to write songs about and discredit artists for “writing too much about men”. I think Olivia is extremely talented and has some extremely well written songs about relationships. If she wrote an album full of songs like Driver’s License or The Cure I’d have 0 issues!! I also think she’s great at writing love songs and would love to see more of those in the future, especially some more fully happy ones like Drop Dead!!

While I fully understand why Olivia did the track list the way she did as it really added to the storytelling element of the album, it unfortunately led to the second half of the album just being ballad after ballad. Expectations was such a breath of fresh air but it also did feel pretty out of place. There was also no business being ballady songs on the first half of the album when the second half was so ballad heavy. I think Olivia should have saved So American for this album to balance it out a bit more.

Overall, I do like this album and will definitely be going back to Drop Dead, Stupid Song, Maggots for Brains, U + Me = Love, My Way, The Cure and Expectations a lot. I love how experimental Olivia is on this record and Guts is my favourite album of all time by any artist so it was going to hard to beat. I just hope that next time Olivia does some more upbeat songs. While I think the pop rock thing really works for her, she doesn’t even necessarily need to solely stick to pop rock as her more pop songs like Drop Dead and Deja Vu are also extremely good songs and I’d be happy with an album of songs like them.

I would say that this project is actually a positive thing for Olivia. I think she’s still experimenting and figuring out what works for her and she’s defo getting even better when it comes to her vocals and doing more complicated production. I think this album will likely be a great stepping stone to her next one and it definitely has some amazing songs. I just really hope she doesn’t double down on the breakup ballads thing as I liked that she was moving away from it on Guts.

Side note: the chorus of Begged sounds really similar to the pre chorus in Couldn’t Make it Any Harder by Sabrina Carpenter and I’m shocked nobody else has said this?? (Absolutely not accusing Olivia of copying Sabrina btw, I think it’s purely a coincidence!!)