Welcome back Olivia Rodrigo fans! It’s officially time to embrace your love for all things purple as Olivia Rodigrio’s sophomore album GUTS just hit all streaming services, already invading your TikTok for you page, car rides, and morning walks across campus.
Being a major OR fan, I have been quite excited about the arrival of GUTS after the masterpiece that was Rodrigo’s first-ever album SOUR, released in 2021. An extremely successful debut that led the 17-year-old pop star, at the time, to win the 2021 Grammy Award for Pop Vocal Album of the Year, among many other prestigious awards.
Rodrigo’s new album, compared to SOUR, is messier, yet more mature. It is fuelled by the experience of a now 20-year-old in the intense and competitive music business of today. In many ways, GUTS is the older sister album of Rodrigo’s first album SOUR, echoing similar themes of messy teenage love while also experimenting with different sounds and musical textures.
The songs in GUTS can be seen as older sisters to certain songs from SOUR, and here are those fierce sibling pairs:
all american bitch x brutal
Olivia Rodrigo definitely knows how to start an album.
Rodrigo’s opener “brutal” has the more youthful tune out of the two, following the pop star’s struggles of being “unrelentlessly upset” while under the pressure of enjoying her teenage years. She defines the world she lives in as brutal while the messiness of the track’s drums and vocals echo that ideal.
“all american bitch” is related to that same sense of turmoil, yet the themes present are somewhat more mature. This song is about how Rodrigo feels pressured to be pretty, sexy, and kind despite knowing she’s the opposite of perfect. She mockingly plays a role in the beginning, middle, and end of the song, singing to a soft and gentle tune, but in the chorus she is loud and livid, screaming into the microphone.
While Olivia in “brutal” is frustrated, Olivia in “all american bitch” is unapologetically angry. Stating: “I know my age and I act like it” without any feelings of regret. They are both dramatic, loud, and intense, capturing all the complex feelings of a teenage girl.
logical x favorite crime
While listening to “logical” for the first time I instantly fell in love with it, similar to the way I fell head over heels for “favorite crime” upon my first ever listen to SOUR.
“favortie crime” is arguably one of the saddest songs from Rodrigo’s first album, as it’s about how she has been both deeply affected and completely enamoured by a toxic and unbalanced relationship from her past. The emotions in this song are not just angry feelings, but feelings of disappointment for both her ex-partner and herself.
“logical” is the older sister to this song because she finally acknowledges how manipulative an unbalanced relationship can be. While consistently trying to salvage the relationship she’s in, Rodrigo starts to question reality: numbers adding up incorrectly and statements of love beginning to feel false. The pop star states that: “love is never logical”, exploring the contradicting feelings of wanting to keep a relationship alive while also knowing how draining it is.
If you loved screaming the lyrics “look what we became” while listening to “favortie crime” just wait until the lyric “I look so stupid” from “logical” bleeds into your soul as it did to mine.
the grudge x driver’s license
These two songs may seem a little different upon first listen, but musically they have one important element in common.
Olivia Rodrigo’s hit single “driver’s license” begins with the sound of a car starting, the repetitive tone of the vehicle’s beep echoing in the background. Eventually, it fades into a pulsing note that remains throughout the entire song, reaching it’s climax right before the bridge. It’s the musical element of the song that makes the lyrics: “Red lights, stop signs” as epic as it is.
“the grudge” has a very similar build in the song in terms of a steady pulse leading to a climactic bridge. The beginning seems entirely different, as Olivia sings a melancholy song about heartbreak over a simple piano, but after the first chorus that familiar pulsing tone from “driver’s license” returns. It carries on throughout the song until finally reaching its peak at the bridge, similarly making the lyrics “Do you think that I deserved it all?” as impactful as the lyrics in “driver’s license”.
This has caused OR fans on TikTok to speculate that the two songs are about the same person. Both lyrics thematically discuss feelings of regret and despair regarding a failed relationship, so it’s not impossible to think that Olivia hoped her fans would make this connection!
teenage dream x hope ur ok
These two songs are the MOST different among all the pairs I’ve listed. “hope ur ok” is about Rodrigo’s deep affection for those from her past, and “teenage dream” is about the fears of growing up and losing the ability to be special. They are songs that have two completely different subject matters, yet they are connected because they are the songs that she chose to end her albums with.
Just like she knows how to pick an intro song to an album, Olivia Rodrigo is also extremely skilled in picking a well-fitting ending to her heartbreaking stories. “hope ur ok” finishes the sadness and bitterness of the album SOUR with a soft send off, combining all themes of heartbreak and anger to a feeling of contentment. Despite all of her sourness, Rodrigo sends well wishes to those around her.
“teenage dream” similarly ties together to the entire album of GUTS by exploring the idea of ‘being enough’. Olivia Rodrigo’s sophomore album experiments so drastically from song to song in terms of musical style for one speculated purpose: to keep the listener engaged in what she has to say. Rodrigo feels like she has to be different, eye-catching, and flashy in order to stay interesting. Those themes are reflected in “teenage dream”, as she apologizes for not being able to stay the youthful version of herself from SOUR.
These two songs are siblings because they tie up their respective albums perfectly. Leaving you with a solid conclusion to the stories the pop star has just sung for you, while also compelling you to want more.
Final thoughts:
Those are all the sibling pairs I was able to identify from the album, but there are definitely a lot more that can be explored. “pretty isn’t pretty” and “jealousy jealousy” seem like distant cousins, while “get him back!” and “good 4 u” could be a dynamic pair of besties. There are endless possibilities as Olivia Rodrigo always seems to keep her music tightly connected. Although GUTS and SOUR sound very different, they are tied together by the purple that is Olivia Rodrigo and her teenage themes of messy love.