Album Review: GUTS | Olivia Rodrigo
sophomore slump who?
Grab your driver’s license and buckle up. The most highly anticipated pop album of the year has finally arrived.
A stunning debut, Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR broke countless records and set the standard for a freshman album in the streaming era. The harshest of Olivia’s critics couldn’t help but feel many of her songs took too many notes from the artists she grew up with, and her influences cost her. You might not know it, but 50% of her royalties from Deja Vu go to Taylor Swift, and half of the royalties from Good 4 U go to Paramore. It’s still unclear how or why Swift & Paramore were randomly added to the track credits. Still, one can conclude that Olivia and her team feared a lawsuit. (Side note: If you’re interested in the rumored feud between Olivia & Taylor, read about it here; the grudge is rumored to allude to this event.)
All of the song credit woes dampened the public’s opinion on Olivia’s ability to curate a unique sound as an artist. GUTS doubles down on this writing practice, polishing it to create a unique vibe. Sophomore albums tend to serve as a telling indicator of an artist’s career trajectory. With GUTS, Olivia has carved out her spot in the upper legions of today’s music superstars. With this second effort, she’s still showcasing her musical heroes and influences. But with this record, she’s really spilled her GUTS.
GUTS builds on what has now become Olivia’s signature brand. She includes a couple of heart-wrenching ballads in making the bed, lacy and logical, along with an incredible bridge challenging her best work on the grudge. The sing-rap-talking she played with on brutal and good 4 u continues on the tracks ballad of a homeschooled girl and gets him back!
GUTS is a perfect sister album to SOUR. Thematically, this album expands upon the same woes of girlhood, unfortunate ex-lovers, comparison, obsession, and the humiliations and awkwardness that come with growing up and falling in love that were explored in her debut. There’s something for everyone on this record.
Though thematically the topics that span this album are similar to her previous one, this time she’s more clever. get him back! is a perfect example of Olivia putting a fresh new twist on a break-up song. She sings about how she has mixed feelings of wanting revenge on an ex but also wanting to get back together with that same ex.
Olivia takes the energy of jealousy, jealousy from her debut, and more thoughtfully wrestles with the constant fight to be prettier on pretty isn’t pretty. On the opening track, all-American b*tch Rodrigo reckons with the impossible expectations young girls face. The opening line, “I am as light as a feather and as stiff as a board,” is the first hint that the song would be a rollercoaster of sound between loud and soft, selfless and ambitious, sexy and kind.
Much like its predecessor, GUTS has clear nods from other artists. Olivia turns to her 90s/00s bubble-grunge influences in Alanis Morisette, Avril Lavinge, and Fiona Apple on tracks like bad idea, right?, ballad of a homeschooled girl, and get him back!. Most of the songs have this heavy percussion and guitar to bring a pop-rock feel to them. Other tracks like pretty isn’t pretty and love is embarrassing to have this more mellow sound that feels like the instrumental of 1979 by The Smashing Pumpkins and There She Goes cover by Sixpence None The Richer.
We would be silly, not to mention how funny this record is. Olivia’s self-awareness is evident all over this record. making the bed is directly about her coming to grips (or better yet, ignoring) that she is the cause of her consequences. In other spots, she includes lyrics like “I am my father’s daughter, I said maybe I can fix him,” which makes you want to laugh once you find out her dad is a therapist. In a bad idea, right? Rodrigo shows her more witty lyricism: “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.” and “I tripped and fell into his bed!” Lastly, if you’ve got social anxiety check out the ballad of a homeschooled girl. Olivia brilliantly keeps in “Can’t think of a third line” as a perfect example of being in mid-conversation with someone and not knowing what to say.
Rodrigo is also a theatre kid, and you can find that all over this album and it’s really how she sells it so well. The vocal inflections of anger and crazy show up on tracks like on love is embarrassing when she sings with some pep “I’m planning out my wedding with some guy I’m never marrying” she says gleefully.
Olivia says it best: “It’s not a complete reinvention of the first album, but it’s new and fresh. We didn’t set out to reinvent the wheel.” - and we think she nailed it. All over GUTS, Olivia is so pissed off, so angsty, and delivers such a great musical theatre kid performance the way only real rock stars can.
Check out our favorite tracks, listen to the album, and see our scores below:
Can’t Miss: love is embarrassing, making the bed, pretty isn’t pretty, all American b*tch, bad idea right, lacy,
You Can Skip: logical
BY THE NUMBERS
Bennett’s Score: 7.8
Carson’s Score: 8.5
Album Score: 16.3
(Scroll to the bottom to see full stats of all Pop Lobster-reviewed albums, GUTS makes a huge splash!)
BENNETT CARSON TOTAL
What do you think?
Notes from Bennett:
I’m not huge into betting, but I would put a considerable amount of money on GUTS being an AOTY nominee at the Grammys. There is a ton of good work here that appeals to a large audience.
ok. bad idea right? is in my opinion the pinnacle of the 2020s pop-punk revival. It’s just so clever and well done that there isn’t much to complain about. I love the outro and the weird pauses for solos in the last chorus. Just well done.
I loved the ballad of a homeschooled girl on the first listen, unfortunately, the charm is starting to wear off. I think if there is a weak point on this album you may find it there.
pretty is pretty is just so good. It’s perfect for this album and Olivia.
I also can’t wait to see GUTS translate into a live show, I think some cool moments would work well live. The screaming bridge on all american bitch for example will be on my for you page every night.
Notes from Carson:
AHHHHHHHHHHHH I love this album. It’s so fun to root for someone like Olivia to be able to survive a second album rollout. I’m thrilled she was able to deliver on this album and in my opinion improve from SOUR.
I hope that I can always expect a jump scare from Olivia on future album openers. all-american b*tch is killer once you get a couple of listens under your belt.
I can honestly confidently say this is an instant classic album due to the fact every time I listen there is a new song that I’m convinced is the best on the record. She did it again, but did it even BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love the lyrics on making the bed. It’s such a gorgeous song and love the way she flips the “you’ve made your bed, now lie on it” expression to recognize her foolishness.
love is embarrassing is the first song that immediately clicked for me. Smasher.
bad idea right? is great. I think though it might burn on me at some point so had to rate it a tad lower. Dan Nigro deserves a Grammy alone for including that little split-second break in the second chorus of the “my brain goes “ahhh”
logical is easily the weakest on here. everything else is super solid in my opinion. but this feels like an extra ballad that was thrown on to make the album feel less pop-rock. sad.
the grudge is driver’s license 2.0
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We’ve updated our All-Time Album Rankings page. Stay tuned for more updates with the overall songs coming soon!
Here are our all-time top albums featured on Pop Lobster.
Funk Wav Bounces, Vol 1 | Calvin Harris | Score: 16.60
**GUTS | Olivia Rodrigo | Score: 16.33**
Speak Now | Taylor Swift | Score: 15.68
the record | boygenius | Score: 14.48
Lover | Taylor Swift | Score: 14.42
AUSTIN | Post Malone | Score: 14.41
Sunburn | Dominic Fike | Score: 14.33
Endless Summer Vacation | Miley Cyrus | Score: 14.00
Unreal Unearth | Hozier | Score: 14.00
In The End It Always Does | The Japanese House | Score: 13.92
Barbie: The Album | Various Artists | Score: 13.88
Gag Order | Kesha | Score: 13.77
Snow Angel | Reneé Rapp | Score: 13.00
UTOPIA | Travis Scott | Score: 12.79
The Album | Jonas Brothers | Score: 12.67
Stick Season | Noah Karan | Score: 12.43