The great Olivia Rodrigo blessed us with her sophomore album, “GUTS” last Friday, September 8th. The 12 tracks on the album feature a much deeper and soulful Olivia with a punk-rock grunge similar to that of Avril Lavigne.
Right off the bat, the album features a great opener, “all-american bitch” which gave me “brutal” vibes, – the opening track for SOUR. It’s a more grown up “brutal” in the sense that Rodrigo seems to know her place more. In the chorus, she says “I know my age and I act like it” whereas in “brutal” she says “I’m so sick of 17, where’s my f*cking teenage dream”.
The opener also gave me Lana Del Rey vibes, considering this idea of a “middle-class” american being something I attribute to Lana Del Rey. Interestingly enough, Olivia Rodrigo presented Lana her Visionary Award at the 2023 Billboard Women in Music Awards. In her speech, Rodrigo specifically mentioned how she considers Lana’s song, “Video Games” to be “the best love song of all time”. This is interesting because this song is arguably off of Lana’s most ‘american-themed’ album, “Born To Die”. It would not surprise me if Rodrigo got inspiration from Lana Del Rey for her opening track.
In comparison to “SOUR”, Olivia noticeably cusses a little more and dives into deeper topics such as the toxic relationships and innuendos. Notably in “vampire” she mentions, “Girls your age know better” alongside other lyrics/themes that detail a soul-sucking relationship with an older man that she described as torture. Also in “logical” Rodrigo describes this relationship further, “Said I was too young, I was too soft, Can’t take a joke, can’t get you off”. Rodrigo has been in two known relationships with older men. One was Adam Faze when he was 24 and the other was DJ Zack Bia when he was 26. Olivia was 18 and 19 during these relationships. It brings up a bigger issue of how men these ages typically can’t get girls their own age, therefore they date naive young girls.
It’s not just Rodrigo who has been victimized by this. Rodrigo’s reflection in her writing reminded me a lot of Taylor Swift’s “Dear John” as a result of her relationship with John Mayer. I think the longer time goes on, we will see more singer-songwriters on par with Taylor Swift. This is because Swift paved the way for young girls to be able to make art about their experiences.
Along with her relationships with older men, Rodrigo dives into deeper topics such as her infamous ex, Joshua Bassett coming out as gay after they dated. In “ballad of a homeschooled girl” the singer says, “Everythin’ I do is tragic (Oh), Every guy I like is gay (Oh).” I’ve also seen some posts on Instagram talking about how this song could be a situation like Taylor Swift’s infamous lyric change to “Picture to Burn”. Some say Rodrigo may be encouraged to change the lyrics later just like Swift did with her song.
It is also ironic to bring up Bassett as a lot of the songs on “SOUR” were allegedly about him. Rodrigo seemed so heartbroken on “SOUR” about Bassett allegedly leaving her for Sabrina Carpenter, as many have coined from her songs. I remember when “drivers license” came out people even felt sorry for Rodrigo with lyrics like “And you’re probably with that blonde girl / who always made me doubt”.
All in all, “GUTS” is more toxic than “SOUR”. “SOUR” portrays Olivia herself as almost the victim, and as a listener, I felt sorry for her. However, in “GUTS”, the singer willingly puts herself in a lot of compromising situations. In “get him back!” she details wanting someone back because she misses the things he did for her. However she mentions wanting to kiss him and punch him at the same time (honestly relatable lol). And even though the singer is technically not a teenager anymore, she is still able to perfectly capture teenage angst. Along with “get him back!” the singer also glorifies putting herself in compromising situations like in “bad idea, right?”. Lyrics like “Yes, I know that he’s my ex, but can’t two people reconnect? ‘I only see him as a friend’, the biggest lie I ever said” reminded me of the social media phenomena “do it for the plot”. This is because she knows that she will make her friends disappointed and it won’t be good for her in the long-run. Although, the theme of teenage angst also captures the essence of living in the moment and doing reckless things you know may hurt later.
I’ve got to say I highly recommend this album. As much as I love “SOUR”, “GUTS” may top it by a bit. This is because “GUTS” has the perfect mixture of upbeat and sad songs. It’s almost as if “SOUR” just turned more sour and really spilled its guts everywhere (in the best way possible). This album keeps a better theme of teenage angst that “SOUR” lacked on a majority of songs. So, give it a listen – I promise you won’t be disappointed.