“GUTS”, the newest album from California-based singer/songwriter Olivia Rodrigo, demonstrates a maturing of the style demonstrated in her debut album, “SOUR”. Being an avid listener to her music since her debut to songwriting, I myself was very excited to see new music from her.
Originally an actress on Disney Channel shows, she broke off from her acting career in 2022 to focus on her musical career, and it shows in her newly released sophomore album, the tour for which comes to Oklahoma’s Paycom center July 27th 2024.
“GUTS” combines an almost eclectic mix of hard indie rock anthems (“bad idea right?,” “ballad of a homeschool girl”), piano-laden ballads of love and loss (“logical,” “lacy”), and a lot of things in between. Rodrigo herself described the album as being about “growing pains,” and the album carries themes of growth and maturity throughout. It also heavily features themes of romance, specifically talking about how the singer feels about an ex. The tone varies from wanting a past lover back, like the drum-and-distorted-bass heavy song “get him back!,” to a vile tirade on the ways the singer’s ex wronged her, such as the album’s leading single “vampire.”
Two songs in particular stand out from the overall style of the album. The album’s opening song, “all-american,” features breathy, light vocals, over a backing track of soft strums on an acoustic guitar. The lyrics present several contradictory character traits, mocking the view of a ‘perfect American woman,’ before quickly falling into the wall of amp-fed noise that fans of her pop-rock style are there for, Rodrigo’s vocals yelling at the world for forcing her into impossible standards.
The second song bookends the album, being the closer, and is a much more solemn song. Backed by sounds of piano and soft strings, “teenage dream” sees Rodrigo quietly mourning the loss of her childhood as she grows up. Throughout the song she wonders what she has left to offer, asking what would happen if she stopped getting better and her art peaked as a teenager. The song breaks from romance-centered lyrics of maturity and improvement to ask what she’s got to offer outside of singing or romance, hitting close to home with her audience of mostly late teenagers.
The album overall follows a similar scheme to that of “SOUR”, with a title in all caps and songs with no capitalization at all. Her pop-rock style has matured since her first album, with a much more defined and unique sound. Unique being the operative word, as “GUTS” has so far seen less copyright drama than Rogrigo’s issues with band Paramore over her song “Good 4 U.” Old faults aside, Rodrigo has presented an eclectic album in tone, unified in a want to know what a person’s worth adds up to in the face of bitter exes and peaking talent, and she puts her entire heart into its delivery. All in all, the album shows an improvement of her skills shown in her past music, and deserves a listen! Find her on spotify, iTunes, and Youtube.
