Album review: Guts by Olivia Rodrigo, one of pop’s biggest and newest stars makes a gutsy return
Second albums don’t come much more hotly anticipated than the follow-up to Olivia Rodrigo’s 2021 debut; it’s hard to think of another artist who has arrived so suddenly, and so massively.
Album reviews for week of September 15 2023:
POP
Guts
Olivia Rodrigo
Geffen Records
You have 20 years to write your first album, Elvis Costello famously said in 1981, and about six months to write your second. This task is a notoriously tough mental slog, and second albums don’t come much bigger than Guts, the wildly anticipated follow-up to Olivia Rodrigo’s 2021 debut, Sour. It’s hard to think of another artist who arrived so suddenly, and so massively, as Rodrigo – who up until the release of her single, Drivers License, was known primarily as a Disney Channel star. The intimate, melancholy ballad cropped up online in early 2021, and within mere days Rodrigo found herself as one of the most popular artists on the planet. The song broke streaming records everywhere, and the tidal wave carried her through to Sour, which won three Grammys and included mega singles such as Good 4 U and Deja Vu. Following that up would be a daunting exercise, and Rodrigo has spoken recently about the writer’s block she experienced while trying to carve out these new songs. But, with the exception of a few forgettable tracks, Guts shows none of this hand-wringing and stagnation: it’s a sharp and, at times, brilliantly funny collection of gutsy pop-rock tracks. Rodrigo once again teamed up with Dan Nigro (Caroline Polachek, Empress Of) for the whole of Guts, and it’s clearly a partnership that works.
On opener All-American Bitch (which tips a hat to the great Joan Didion), she sneers at the loaded idea of the perfect woman: “I got class and integrity / Just like a goddamn Kennedy”. It’s a perfect introduction to an album that sees Rodrigo gloriously embrace her messiness and flaws: calling exes late at night and waking up in beds she probably shouldn’t be in, spilling secrets, saying the wrong things. Second track Bad Idea Right? is peak Rodrigo: clever, biting and laugh-out-loud funny, as she whispers “F..k it, it’s fine” before heading off and making another questionable decision. Its tumbling, almost spoken-word lyrics are heavily reminiscent of British outfit Wet Leg – clearly an act Rodrigo has been playing on repeat in recent years. There are plenty of high points, but there are also some tracks (Logical, Making the Bed, Teenage Dream) that will leave your memory almost instantly, even after repeat listens. And like Sour, which courted controversy for some copyright issues, there are plenty of tracks here that draw heavily from other artists’ work. Guts isn’t a groundbreaking record that will push the boundaries of pop; not in the slightest. But it is razor-sharp and a bucketload of fun, which is more than enough.
Jules LeFevre
INDIE POP/ROCK
Drummer
G Flip
Future Classic
On album No.2, G Flip (colloquially known as G) has created an ode to their first love – drums – with some big choruses thrown in for good measure. Such a statement is in no way a critique: Be Your Man, The Worst Person Alive and Good Enough carry enormous hooks that are gold dust in the modern era. As the title suggests, G’s love of rhythm is the record’s biggest selling point. From the Toto-inspired, alt-pop cruise of Didn’t Mean To, to military-band-turned-alt-rocker 7 Days, Drummer is propelled by G’s talent and versatility on the skins. Ironically, experimental cuts Baked and Kevin are the two ultimate highlights, taking the record away from the kit and into a sonic laboratory. However, this may be a positive indicator of where G’s future lies, with the soul of Drummer found in the kick drums and snare cracks. While Phil Collins doth protest to G’s claim they “never saw a solo (pop) artist whose main instrument was drums” growing up, there’s no denying this unconventional approach has paid off in spades.
Alasdair Belling
AMERICANA
Down in Hollywood
Dana Gehrman
Futurfonic Records
Little Feat was the ultimate “musicians’ band”, revered by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Robert Palmer and the Rolling Stones. Lead singer, songwriter and slide guitarist Lowell George died in 1979, aged 34, but Feat’s influence lives on today: Brisbane singer-guitarist Dana Gehrman, born more than a decade later, and her eponymous band are flying the flag. It’s not all about George, however. Down In Hollywood — whose title is a nod to his birthplace — includes two songs penned by Feat guitarist Paul Barrere and two more by New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint, both also no longer with us: On Your Way Down (one of three deep cuts from the 1973 classic Feat album Dixie Chicken) and What Do You Want The Girl To Do, a version of which appeared on George’s only solo outing, released in the year of his death. Gehrman’s faithful readings of these seven tracks pay due homage, with the masterful slide of Danny Widdicombe eerily evoking George’s ghost.
Phil Stafford
JAZZ
Delve
Underwards
Earshift Music
This unusual album features 10 compositions from Sydney’s Ellen Kirkwood, inspired by the ways in which humans experience nature. Other than Kirkwood (trumpet, voice, percussion), Underwards includes Hilary Geddes (guitar, effects), Nick Henderson (bass, synthesisers) and Adam Inman-Hislop (drums, percussion). Inspired by night skies, waterways, mountains et al, Kirkwood says her music manifests her current efforts towards a greater understanding of Indigenous connections to country. Six tracks refer to the Capertee Valley, where in 1830 Dabee clan members were massacred by European settler troops. Percussive or synthesiser figures are utilised, in order to suggest natural sounds, and Kirkwood is not averse to modifying her lovely, rounded tone on trumpet to create sound effects. Frequently those effects morph into extremely authoritative trumpet solos. Other notable features of Delve are Kirkwood’s wordless vocals, doubling composed lines, and the remarkable playing of Geddes, whose guitar solos can move seamlessly from restraint into blazing high energy.
Eric Myers
PUNK ROCK
The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons
The Hives
Disques Hives
Famously dapper Swedish punks The Hives have made a three-decade career out of confounding expectations. With songs that regularly blow out around two and a half minutes and personnel with names like Chris Dangerous and Nicholaus Arson, the group was at its popular peak during the garage-rock revival of the early 2000s. Unlike its peers of that era, The Hives — regularly lauded as one of the best live bands on the planet — never stopped performing. New music has been less forthcoming, which makes this record – its first since 2012 – so exciting. It bottles the razor-sharp precision of seasoned musicians seeking to widen their sonic scope into one of their most enjoyable efforts yet. Lead single Bogus Operandi sets the mood quickly, matched by the gleeful, Stooges-like intensity of Crash Into The Weekend and Two Kinds Of Trouble, a song Jack White likely wishes he wrote. But it’s on slower, swaggering cuts like Stick Up and Rigor Mortis Radio where the renewed Hives really delight. If they’re shaping up to age disgracefully into another decade of hair-raising gigs, we should all be so lucky.
Jonathan Seidler
Album reviews for week of September 8 2023:
METALCORE
Fatalism
Polaris
Resist Records
The evolution of Sydney metalcore act Polaris has been fascinating to hear across three strong albums that each revel in a sonically brutal yet emotionally intelligent space. The ARIA-nominated group has established a loyal following since its 2017 debut, The Mortal Coil, which heralded its entry to the Australian heavy music scene. Since then, Polaris has continued to grow by taking the kinetic energy of life’s myriad ups and downs, and manifesting some exciting musical additions to the genre. Its third album Fatalism has captured the common frustration and despair of recent years, and produced a powerful response through music that chooses not to live in that despondence. Instead, it barrels through the dark with aggression (tracks such as Overflow and Dissipate), choosing change over collapse. Fatalism is perhaps the strongest effort from Polaris to date, rising to the challenge of elevating the band’s overall output. It’s a fully realised journey, starting with the foreboding Harbinger and expanding beautifully into the layered instrumentalism of Nightmare and Parasites. Its metalcore meets a fusion of post- and alt-rock, flecked with licks of industrial and electro – the combination of influences Polaris has poured into its collective cauldron and core vision.
The threading of more electronics through such rhythmic, guitar-driven music highlights the progression of its sound on Fatalism, when compared to previous albums. Jamie Hails’ harsh vocals are at a punishing new peak across the album, and it offers a perfect foil for bassist/vocalist Jake Steinhauser, whose clean vocals provide additional nuance and boost to each careening melody and riff. Drummer and lyricist Daniel Furnari’s pace pulsates through Inhumane, while guitarists Rick Schneider and the late Ryan Siew demonstrate enviable alchemy as instrumentalists throughout. Siew’s shock death in June, aged 26, left the band and its fanbase reeling with grief, and consequently there is an additional layer of emotional weight to Fatalism as a whole. It’s an album that emerges as both a potent musical triumph and bittersweet tribute to an extremely talented musician, whose mark has been indelibly left. Poignancy and clarity is found in accepting that fear and confusion will always exist, though it doesn’t have to wholly consume us. Though this album was written with widespread division and fear in mind, Polaris has used the potency of its response to create music that feels powerfully unified.
Sosefina Fuamoli
POP
Barbie: The Album
Various Artists
Atlantic
The right soundtrack can elevate a film from great to transcendent. Think of Dick Dale’s sun-kissed surf-rock riffage puncturing Pulp Fiction, or the scuzzed-out shoegaze selections in Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation. The same cannot be said about the Barbie soundtrack, which was pulled together by pop’s Pied Piper, Mark Ronson. Best taken at face value, this set is most effective when delivering pure sugar hits of pop euphoria: Sam Smith’s masculinity-skewering Man I Am, Charli XCX’s frenetic joy ride Speed Drive, Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s campy Barbie World, and PinkPantheress’s bleepy, Irish-fiddle adorned Angel. Tame Impala and The Kid Laroi offer forgettable tracks, and then there’s some truly terrible stuff. Dominic Fike’s Hey Blondie is limp; Gayle’s Butterflies is a lame, unlistenable take on Crazy Town’s 2000 hit single, and Ava Max’s Choose Your Fighter sounds like the kind of torturous high-BPM Eurodance cut they bludgeon you with at a reformer pilates class.
Geordie Gray
ALTERNATIVE
Tall Pop Syndrome
Jack Ladder
Endless Recordings
Possessed with a baritone so deep you can hear it underwater, Jack Ladder has been marauding around the edges of the Australian alternative scene since the iPod era. During that time, he has also dropped a number of bona fide classics, notably the back-to-back winners Hurtsville and Playmates. This is his seventh release in 15 years, but flips his usual trick of channelling 80s-inspired sonics into devastating ballads. Instead, inspired by opening for The Killers in arenas, Ladder tries his hand at writing sticky, electronic pop. And though it’s still serious, some of it really is fun, such as the bit-crushed Game Over and laser-synth I’m Melting, which is probably what Client Liaison would sound like apres hell. It makes sense that a record reduced to fewer parts and mostly drum machines should be produced by Kim Moyes of The Presets. While it’s not his strongest suit, album closer Co-Dependency Blues shows that even when he’s in his reinvention phase, the man still can write a killer song.
Jonathan Seidler
ELECTRONIC
Alchemy
Disclosure
Apollo Records / AWAL
Surprise albums don’t always land as intended – just ask U2 – but the end of Disclosure’s major label contract provided British brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence the chance to do things on their own terms. Landing out-of-the-blue 10 years after the release of debut album Settle, Alchemy’s warm, uplifting and energetic electronic vibes demonstrate that, while Disclosure has adeptly straddled underground and pop realms to date, it’s in clubland where the duo is most impressive. Despite their history of big-name collaborations – from Sam Smith and Kelis, to Lorde and The Weeknd – Alchemy is an unshackled, back-to-basics affair. There are no guests and no samples; just gloriously fresh, fun and assured electronica, all aimed squarely at the dancefloor. Opener Looking For Love sets the pace with its bumpy, summery house grooves and, from the frenetic drum and bass of Higher Than Ever Before to the twisted synth breakdown and pounding beats of Go The Distance, tempos are consistently high. The only lament is that, at just over 37 minutes, this “celebration of liberation” is over all too soon.
Tim McNamara
DREAM POP
Here Is One I Know You Know
Seja
It Records
Seja Vogel deploys a veritable fleet of synthesisers on her third solo album, celebrating the joy of immersive textures alongside her work on guitar, bass, drum machine and other keyboard instruments. Those radiant synth melodies spill forth like waterfalls from the songs, which have the veteran Brisbane musician and charming podcaster balancing her dreamlike vocals with deeply layered electronic and acoustic arrangements. There are plenty of cameos, too, showcasing members of Ball Park Music, Warpaint and All Our Exes Live in Texas, as well as Portlandia star Fred Armisen playing tube toms on Change on the Horizon. Most dramatic of all is The Quickening’s Chris Farrer, who pulls off an epic hair-metal guitar solo on Minor Chords, Major Problems. Another highlight is Vogel singing in German over a spongy groove on Es Passt. Fans of Broadcast and Stereolab should especially gravitate to this surround-sound cosmic pop, while Vogel’s prior stint performing with alt-pop heroes Regurgitator will surely win her another segment of devotees.
Doug Wallen