Since the launch of her career with the unprecedented hit “drivers license” in 2021, Olivia Rodrigo has been battling a never-ending deluge of comparisons: a wannabe Taylor Swift, a Disney-star Hayley Williams, the Lorde for homeschooled kids. GUTS, her sophomore album, might not put an end to the comparisons, but proves Rodrigo is undoubtedly a star in her own right.
With the breakout success of her debut album, Sour, the former teen actor—then 17—made it immediately clear she had a hit-making talent and a flair for drama. The pop-punk-inspired album standouts “brutal” and “good 4 u” featured earworm guitar hooks, rollicking drums, and Rodrigo’s so-over-it, smirking tone delivering hilariously teenaged lyrics. “And good for you, I guess that you've been working on yourself/I guess that therapist I found for you, she really helped,” she snarked on the latter track, tearing into an ex who’d moved on too fast. Unfortunately, on Sour, these over-the-top, winking pop anthems were few and far between, heavily outweighed by treacly, downtempo piano tracks.
This is certainly not the case on GUTS, in which Rodrigo leans into her talent for catchy hooks and sarcastic lyrics made for TikTok lip-syncs, with songs that are so cheesy it works—producing a high-spirited and campy album that can only be summed up as really, really fun. The opening track, titled “all-american bitch” in an uncharacteristically obscure Joan Didion reference, has a red-herring intro. Over cloying folk-pop guitar, Rodrigo sarcastically outlines the traits of an ideal “all-American girl”: sensitive and thoughtful but can take a joke, eternally optimistic, would make a great mother someday. Then the chorus kicks in, setting the real tone of the album: “I know my age and I act like it,” shouts Rodrigo over a classic pop-punk instrumental, simpering voice replaced with bite, outlining her frustration with double standards and unrealistic expectations, complete with cathartic screaming throughout the bridge.
This opener serves as an apt reveal of what’s to come: Across 12 teasingly short tracks, Rodrigo acts her age. Each song deals with familiar teenage girl conflicts, from no-good ex-boyfriends to personal issues with self-image. From many other songwriters, this would be a tired, overdone backbone, resulting in songs that sound like everything else on the radio. With Rodrigo, however, it’s impossible not to conclude that nobody is doing it like her right now. From ordinary songwriting fodder and generic pop sounds she pulls a spectacular performance, proving her real talent is in her star persona.
Standout hit “get him back!” is a particularly fun showcase of how Rodrigo’s line delivery and dramatic affect really make her music. She details a former relationship with a guy of questionable morals and how she can’t decide if she’d like to plot revenge or get back together. “I want to kiss his face/With an uppercut, I want to meet his mom/Just to tell her her son sucks,” croons Rodrigo in the witty, conflicted bridge. The bouncing, bass-backed track is catchy in its own right, but it’s Rodrigo’s hysterically dry delivery that completes the song. “He said he’s six-foot-two, and I’m like, dude, nice try,” she drawls with a practically audible eye-roll. The single release “bad idea right?” was similarly an instant smash, relying on its comically relatable premise and Rodrigo’s humor to go viral—“Yes I know that he’s my ex/But can’t two people reconnect?” she asks in a faux-innocent tone. “I just tripped and fell into his bed!” she exclaims sarcastically, in a chorus fated to be lip-synced by thousands of teenagers in the days after the song’s release. In “ballad of a homeschooled girl,” she describes a montage of party fouls and social embarrassments in similar Instagram-caption-esque lines: “Everything I do is tragic…” she bemoans. “Every guy I like is gay.”
Despite the wildly entertaining pop-rock tracks in GUTS, Rodrigo couldn’t resist balancing them with a handful of sappy piano ballads. On these slower songs, it’s impossible not to think of the wannabe Taylor Swift accusations—the analogy-heavy ballad “logical” could have come from the back catalog of Red, and the soft indie guitar tune “lacy” was undoubtedly written after one too many playthroughs of folklore. However, given that Rodrigo clearly writes stronger songs when being ironic and campy, it’s a shame so much of Guts is made up of the style of song she should have, for the most part, left behind with Sour. “the grudge,” in particular, bears an unmistakable and lackluster similarity to “drivers license,” and certainly proves its title true—despite Rodrigo’s embracing of the irreverent, over-it pop-rock anthem, she can still hold a grudge, resulting a in a penchant for rehashing one-note breakup songs.
The one ballad that doesn’t fit this bill is the album’s closer: “teenage dream” is an honest and thoughtful reflection on her fame so far. “When am I going to stop being great for my age and just start being good?” she wonders despondently, in a rare touching piano-backed moment. The title harkens back to the opener on Sour, in which Rodrigo accused general society of falsely promising her that her teenage years would be the best of her life. “I’m so over seventeen,” she groaned in ironically seventeen-year-old fashion back then. “Where’s my fucking teenage dream?”
Given the bitter premise of her debut album, it would have been easy for Olivia Rodrigo to take a different tack for GUTS. One clever viral tweet in 2021 suggested highlighting the good parts of relationships rather than the heartbreaking ones and titling it Sweet. However, Guts proves Rodrigo’s strengths don’t lie with singing about heartbreak or pure romance. Instead, they lie with the dramatic. In Guts, Rodrigo combines the saccharine and the sour to create something far more enjoyable—a performance meant to be ironically sung along with. No teenage dreams here, but that’s alright—she can still have fun anyway.
Leo Downey, who lives in Thetford, is a senior at Thetford Academy. He writes about music, books, and pop culture.