Olivia Rodrigo, Guts
★★★★
Listening to Olivia Rodrigo is like hopping in a time machine, both aurally and emotionally. The 20-year-old’s music draws from a well of 2000s pop-rock influences, bringing to mind the heyday of the likes of Avril Lavigne, and her lyrics chart the angst and confusion of experiencing heartbreak – and the subsequent thirst for vengeance – for the first time. The first lyric on the record – “I’m as light as a feather and as stiff as a board” – sent me right back to pre-teen sleepovers.
Girlhood, in all its messy glory, is central to Rodrigo’s world. As with her debut album, 2021’s Sour, her second record Guts positions her as a sharp observer of both her own emotions and what’s happening around her. It’s a thematic continuation in many ways, but shows a maturation both in musical style and Rodrigo’s vocals, which sound clearer and more confident here.
The 20-year-old superstar’s new album picks up the thematic thread of her Grammy-winning Sour with greater maturity and confidence.Credit: Nick Walker
Ballads and bangers sit side by side and Rodrigo is a dab hand at both, though the latter are much more fun here, led by the made-for-shouting single Bad Idea Right? It goes hand in hand with Get Him Back!, a choppy anthem whose double entendre title – is it about revenge or is it about reconciliation? – speaks to the contradictions of young womanhood. Both here and on the anxiety-charting Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl (despite its name, it’s an upbeat pop-rock number), she adopts a speak-singing cadence in the verses before propelling into an addictive chorus that wouldn’t sound out of place on an early 2000s teen movie soundtrack.
Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts: No threat of a sophomore slump here.
Rodrigo often wears her influences on her sleeve in a way that might be regarded as pastiche. Keen listeners noted the similarities between Good 4 U and Paramore’s 2006 hit Misery Business, resulting in the writers of the latter getting a credit after the fact. It was the same story for Deja Vu and Taylor Swift’s Cruel Summer. The closing track on Guts is called Teenage Dream – no explanation needed there.
Elsewhere, the inspiration is… herself: it’s hard not to clock the likeness between The Grudge (which has already sparked internet debates regarding the subject of its wrath) and Rodrigo’s breakout single Drivers License. But there are some new ingredients and experimentations too, such as the reverb-drenched highlight Pretty Isn’t Pretty, which adopts a dreamy indie-pop sheen reminiscent of artists such as Alvvays and, closer to home, Hatchie – the sound suits Rodrigo’s voice, and more in this vein would be welcome in the future.
When it comes to the record’s softer moments, the highlight is Logical, a roiling, piano-led document of an emotionally abusive relationship with an older man; Rodrigo’s voice trembles with emotion as she sings “you lied, you lied, you lied”, but elsewhere in the song she’s riddled with self-doubt and blame. She’s one of many young women rising against such treatment in recent times, and this song is a worthy addition to the canon alongside lead single Vampire, with its acidic shots (“You can’t love anyone, ’cause that would mean you had a heart”).
There are many faces here, all of them compelling and clever. With Guts, Rodrigo has conquered the dreaded difficult second album: it’s an assured collection of whip-smart songs that trace the contours of early adulthood with both compassion, wisdom and a healthy dose of venom.
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