Olivia Rodrigo: “GUTS” Album

Aira Casas writes about Olivia Rodrigo's newest hit album and its critical acclaim.

Image Credit: Larissa Hoffman

Two years after “SOUR” was released, singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo returned on September 8, with her long-awaited new sophomore album “GUTS”. Guts gets much more into pop, but also experiments with other music genres as well. According to Olivia, “For me, this album is about growing pains and about trying to figure out who I am at this point in my life and exactly what I want to say in my songs.”

Guts’ tracklist, starting with “all american b*tch”, “bad idea, right?”, guts’ lead single “vampire”, “lacy”, “ballad of a homeschooled girl”, “making the bed”, “logical”, “get him back!”, “love is embarrassing”, “the grudge”, “pretty isn’t pretty”, and ending with “teenage dream”. These 12 songs are mainly powerful, energetic pop-rock-punk songs with some being an alter- native folk, soft pop or a piano ballad, and an indie rock song. The majority talks about her ex (similar to sour), Olivia expresses seeing them again, being exploited, wanting revenge, feeling of betrayal, trying to move on, and other similar topics related to her ex. She also expresses the unrealistic expectations of young women, insecurities, trying to fit in like everyone else, finding herself, and Olivia’s reflection of her teenage years as she enters adulthood.

Olivia also released hidden tracks in her vinyls like “obsessed”, an upbeat pop-rock, “scared of my guitar”, “stranger”, and “girl i’ve always been”, which are mainly country ballads. She still expresses her ex, like being jealous of their ex-girlfriend, or can’t confront the truth about how she feels with her relationship with them in “obsessed” and “scared of my guitar”. While “stranger” and “girl i’ve always been” express her moving on from her ex, Olivia feels the same as she always has while criticizing people who think she has changed. After Guts was released, Olivia received critical acclaim for her songwriting, and improved more from her debut. One review from Metacritic describes guts, “demonstrating her in- credible ability to write, but above all to express emotions,”

Guts debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart with all 12 songs charting on the Billboard Hot 100’s top 40 chart. She also announced her sold-out “GUTS World Tour”, including artists like PinkPantheress, The Breeders, Chappell Roan, and Remi Wolf. “GUTS” not only proved another big success for Olivia Rodrigo, but also, from the same review, noted her as “the big promise of the music industry.”