One of the best new faces in music of the last two years, Olivia Rodrigo has taken the world by storm with the release of her debut album, “SOUR” in May of 2021. For two and a half years, Olivia would remain silent until the June release of her debut single titled “Vampire,” for her upcoming album. In August, she would release a second single for the album titled, “bad idea right?” Finally, on September 8th, she released the 12 song album titled, “GUTS.”
Going into the album, I was excited to hear how she would build off of “SOUR”, as I thought it was overall a solid album with plenty of interesting ideas and tons of powerful emotion and passion put into every song.
After listening to “GUTS”, it feels like an improvement over “SOUR” in a lot of ways, having a great mix of upbeat and fun songs like ‘bad idea right?’ and ‘ballad of a homeschooled girl,’ while still leaving room for plenty of emotionally vulnerable songs that follow Olivia’s signature style such as ‘making the bed’ and the closing song ‘teenage dream.’
Starting off with the song, ‘all-american b***h,’ it introduces the album with a gentle and soft sound, but quickly evolves into a strong and upbeat chorus with an electric guitar to accompany the aggressive tone in Olivia’s voice. It’s a solid way to introduce the album and transition into ‘bad idea right,’ which grew on me after hearing it for the first time. It was always a fun and angsty song, but it fits well in the album and left a better impression on me than when I first heard it on release.
Another song that left a positive impression, ‘Lacy,’ does a good job of being another gentle track, having Olivia’s fantastic voice shine throughout, and having a great and impactful payoff at the end of the song. “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl” follows, and it may be my favorite off the album. It has a really catchy chorus, love the guitar riffs, and is overall a fun and entertaining song.
“Making the Bed” is also one of my favorites, as it’s Olivia’s best vocal display on this album. It’s full of emotion and it’s just so passionate, it reminds me of “drivers license” in a way, but more impactful and has a better vocal performance from Olivia.
The last two songs that I liked a lot were the last two songs in the album, ‘pretty isn’t pretty,’ and ‘teenage dream.’ Pretty isn’t pretty was a nice change of pace in that point in the album, it’s well written and atmospheric, while teenage dream was a great way to close out the album, it was gentle to start off, but then evolved into something powerful with a fantastic payoff at the end of the song. Even if I did enjoy most of this album, there were some low moments in this album, too.
Following ‘bad idea right,’ was the other lead single, ‘vampire,’ which still feels like a weaker song compared to the rest of the album. It didn’t leave as much of an impact as other songs on this album, and I feel like it starts really slow, doesn’t progress the best, and it doesn’t have a lot going for it lyrically.
Another song that didn’t leave much of an impact was “get him back”, which felt a bit generic to me. It felt like an alternate version of ‘bad idea right,’ in an odd way, and I know I’ve heard the chorus progression in this song many times before in other pop-rock songs. The only other song that wasn’t the best to me was ‘the grudge,’ as it feels way too similar to “drivers license”. “Making the bed” had the emotional impact of ‘drivers license’, but was able to build off of that emotion and make a song that was not the same as ‘driver’s license’. The grudge didn’t have the same emotional impact as “making the bed” or “drivers license” either, while also having the exact same vocal progression that drivers license had.
“The grudge” was my least favorite in the album; it didn’t feel like it had its own identity as a song, and just felt like a reused idea by Olivia. Two songs on the album that I didn’t mention were ‘logical’ and ‘love is embarrassing,’ as I felt that they were just average songs that were not as memorable as the other highlights or lowlights in this album, just middle of the road songs.
Overall, Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘GUTS’ was an impressive sophomore album. I feel like she improved on almost every aspect of “SOUR”, making guts better written lyrically, more engaging, more upbeat and fun, and has more impactful emotional moments, which was Olivia’s best quality as an artist going into GUTS.
After listening, you can hear how much Olivia has developed as an artist, and how you can tell that she had a good time recording and creating this album as well. I’m looking forward to what Olivia Rodrigo will have to offer for her next album cycle, and hope to listen to more and more improvements from her as an artist in the future.
MY FINAL RATING: 82/100
