The Guts of Olivia Rodrigo’s New Album: A Review

by Maggie Sylling

For the lack of a better phrase, 19-year-old pop princess Olivia Rodrigo spilled all of her guts into her sophomore album, titled Guts, which was released last Friday, September 8th. 

To say I am impressed is an understatement.  

Following the record-breaking success of her debut album Sour, Rodrigo hinted that new music was coming sooner than anticipated by posting a brief clip of instrumental music on her Instagram story back in May of this year.  

And then in late June, Rodrigo confirmed Guts and soon after released the album’s first single, “Vampire.” This song, and the following single, “bad idea right?”, gave a taste of the album’s fresh timbre. 

Rodrigo’s debut album, Sour, combined teen-angst and heartbreak with a pop-rock production. Guts leans even more into that “pop-punk” genre and emulates its predecessor in a deep, convoluted, and unapologetic way.  

The album is a feelings-dump; rather than psycho-analyzing certain situations and emotions with an almost clinical lens like many pop songs do, Rodrigo lays out the truth of her experiences these past two years with blunt honesty - and it’s painfully relatable.  

She switches from an Avril Lavigne-inspired, hyper-pop rock genre to heart-wrenching ballads over the course of one album. Admittedly, Guts isn’t very cohesive as a whole - but isn’t that the point? 

“We really wanted to show that I’m a versatile songwriter and a versatile artist,” said Rodrigo in an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine. “And I can write heartbreak songs, but I can also make cool alternative pop songs. I didn’t want to be pigeonholed into the heartbreak-ballad-girl thing.”  

Now that Rodrigo has completely stepped into the music industry, she’s not afraid to experiment. Rodrigo fully embraces a multitude of different songwriting styles, and simply works on what she enjoys making - rather than letting the world decide what genre and style she best fits into. 

Despite the inconsistencies in genre, the album maintains a consistent tone throughout, much to the hard work of Rodrigo’s producer, Dan Nigro. Warped guitar, echoed vocal chops, and mellotrons appear frequently, across both her slower and wilder songs. Nigro’s production, combined with Rodrigo’s developed lyricism, unite to create an avant-garde work of art. 

Guts is an album for all young adults. It explores heartbreak and loneliness, but it also touches on insecurities: self-hatred, unapologetic revenge, being unsure about your future. Knowing that something is a “bad idea” but deciding to do it regardless. Rodrigo covers what we all feel, and more importantly, what we all need to hear. 

Rodrigo said in an Apple Music promotional interview, “People really resonate with authenticity. You can have this catchy melody and like, greatest production ever- but truth and vulnerability is really what people resonate with. And that’s always going to stay the same no matter what genre you do, no matter if you do an up-tempo song or a down-tempo song.”  

Rodrigo can write these meaningful, resonant lyrics, but it’s her casual, comical ones that sets her apart from other artists. She doesn’t rely on metaphors to describe her feelings in every song, when oftentimes, they can be described in their entirety with careful, simple phrases. Instead, she makes her lyrics accessible and intelligible. 

She seems to draws a single, lyrical arrow to hit her mark - and her aim always lands true. 

With that sense of humor, Rodrigo can be very playful in her music. In “ballad of a homeschooled girl”, Rodrigo explores the classic teenage fear that all of ones interactions just “make it weird and make it worse.” In “get him back!”, Rodrigo states, “He said he’s 6’2” and I’m like, ‘Dude, nice try!” 

We’ve all been there before. 

Teenage lives can be complicated, messy, and convoluted. And, with adulthood looming ahead, it can be stressful. At one point or another, we’ve all struggled with the concept of our future and where our lives are heading.  

Even Olivia Rodrigo, someone who would seem to have her life all figured out, struggles with that. She explores that in the last track of Guts, “Teenage Dream”, one of the only slow songs in the album, when she says “Got your whole life ahead of you, you’re only nineteen. But I fear they already got the best parts of me.”  

In a nod to her debut, “Teenage Dream” closes with the same instrumental that the first single from Sour started with. It’s a full circle moment. 

Guts may be gut-wrenching, but it perfectly encapsulates the teenage experience in all its good and all its bad. So go ahead and give Guts a listen. I promise it's not a bad idea... right?