Three-time Grammy award winner Olivia Rodrigo released her sophomore album Guts September 8. The album did not disappoint eager fans who waited nearly two years for new music from the singer as it gives insight to her life as a newfound young woman with all eyes on her.
Many feared Rodrigo would fall victim to the sophomore album slump but with nearly perfect reviews from major music publications, she was far from it.
Guts feels like an extension of Sour, “all-american bitch” being slightly reminiscent of “brutal” and “teenage dream” closing out the album in a similar way that “hope ur ok” did.
“Vampire” and “bad idea right?” were the first two singles from Guts. They are both vastly different sounds which gave listeners a good insight as to what could be expected from the album. “Vampire” seems to allude to an extremely toxic ex-boyfriend, people going so far as calling it her “Dear John.” The song begins as a slowed down piano ballad until it picks up in a “driver’s license”-esque bridge.
“Bad idea right?” is the more fun and playful side of Guts. She narrates her experience of seeing an ex again from start to finish. The song begins while out with her friends for the night until she gets into the car “wreckin’ all [her] plans” until she ends with proclaiming she just “tripped and fell into his bed.” “Get him back!” also follows this narration of one of Rodrigo’s whirlwind romances, suggesting she both wants revenge and to rekindle a relationship.
From the get-go Guts is full of rage. The opening track, “all-american bitch,” starts out the same way that all sleepovers in 2010 started with “I am light as a feather, I’m as stiff as a board,” later picking up with rage and a passive aggressive tone, the same way all late night sleepover gossip sessions end. The bridge of the song ends in a high-pitched shrilling scream, one that perfectly encapsulates the teenage girl experience.
Fans are unsure about who the chillingly sweet yet mournful track “lacy” could possibly be about. TikTok users claim it could be Sabrina Carpenter or Madison Beer based upon the line while others believe it is about battling with an eating disorder. “Logical” and “the grudge” are both stand out songs that fall more on the slower side of the album. The latter has made noise on the internet due to a non-existent feud between Taylor Swift and Rodrigo. Before the album came out, some Twitter users were insistent on “the grudge” being about the grudge Rodrigo has against Swift for the copyright issues she faced with her 2021 album Sour. “Logical,” on the other hand, details the belittlement she faced from a “master manipulator” that had her thinking that “two plus two equals five,” “the sky is green,” and most importantly, that she was the love of his life.
While Rolling Stone ranks this as their least favorite Rodrigo song, “ballad of a homeschooled girl” is a catchy track that has gained traction on Tik Tok. Rodrigo was homeschooled for most of her life due to working as a child actress, so she missed out on the high school experience. She faces social anxiety and embarrassment from this isolation from kids her age and her gaydar is way off (which honestly same). The feeling of embarrassment comes back in the track “love is embarrassing,” a catchy track where she recounts just how stupid she felt being obsessed with a boy. While this feeling of awkwardness Rodrigo writes about resonates well with listeners, she also hits the nail on the head about our insecurities in “pretty isn’t pretty,” a track about the struggles of self-love.
Two of my personal favorite tracks, “making the bed” and “teenage dream,” are emotionally introspective songs that made me tear up on first listen due to how relatable they are. “Making the bed” plays on the phrase “you made the bed, now lie in it,” as Rodrigo reflects on her instantaneous rise to fame. “Want it, so I got it/ did it, so it’s done/ another thing I ruined/ I used to do for fun” touches on the lack of excitement she may feel when creating music after the whirlwind success she had with Sour. “Teenage dream” asks the questions we all want answers to as we grow up as young women, including “when am I gonna stop being wise beyond my years and just start being wise?” and “will I spend all the rest of my years which I could go back?” These introspective questions are just a few of many Rodrigo asks throughout the course of the song, explaining that she fears the best parts of her life have already gone by in her teenage years. The song concludes the standard version of the album with the reassuring repetition of the lines “they all say that it gets better” and a voice note from her producer Dan Nigro’s daughter.
Guts reminded me of parts of my childhood in the best way possible. Lots of TikTok users have pointed out the similarities between past work from artists like Miley Cyrus and Avril Lavigne. While I do think that a lot of these comparisons people are trying to make are a stretch, the album was for sure reminiscent of the sounds of the early 2000s.
Listening to lots of Avril Lavigne as a child for sure shaped the person I am today. My first favorite song that I can remember is Lavigne’s 2007 pop-punk hit “Girlfriend,” and I wanted a pink strip in my hair just like hers. The similarities in both aesthetic and sound of early 2000s Avril and Guts makes me so happy that young girls will have music of their own that they can enjoy the same way I enjoyed dancing to “Sk8er Boi” and “Complicated.”
Rodrigo is touring across North America and Europe beginning February 2024. She is bringing along The Breeders, Chappell Roan, PinkPanthress, and Remi Wolf. The Guts World Tour is hitting the Carolinas on March 8 at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.