Former actress and current popstar, Olivia Rodrigo released her second headlining album, “GUTS,” on September 8.
After Rodrigo’s debut album, “SOUR” – which has remained Billboard’s number one debut album since it came out on May 21, 2021 – she became beloved by all ages for her voice and catchy music. The album featured singles like “driver’s license” and “deja vu” which reached radio stations worldwide and broke the streaming numbers.
Rodrigo won countless awards for the album and the singles as well, including three Grammys, four MTV awards, seven Billboard music awards, and others.
“GUTS” also featured two singles, “vampire” and “bad idea right?”, which hit teens hard when they came out due to catchiness and the lyricism of both songs. The two songs are also engaging and understandable as well.
Honestly, the album is a no-skip. It has so many relatable songs that establish what being a teenage girl in 2023 is like. They are expected to be “great, not just ‘good,’” and Rodrigo goes on about the all-too-familiar issue in about three of her songs, including “all-american bitch”, “pretty isn’t pretty”, and “teenage dream”. Not too many of these songs are about her ex, Joshua Bassett, like “SOUR” allegedly was, but Rodrigo does offer some hard-hitting songs that deserve some attention.
Track one is a perfect opener to the album: “all-american bitch,” is about the general attitude of teenage girls that nobody in the older generations understand. Rodrigo sings, “I know my age, and I act like it,” and these lyrics are a great way to express the phrasing adults usually use against Gen-Z when they are told to “act their age,” at 13-18. The song is relatable to the age group Rodrigo is attempting to reach, and the track is easy to memorize and can simply turn a casual fan into a huge Olivia Rodrigo listener.
Previously, Rodrigo put out a song called “jealousy, jealousy” on “SOUR” about how she does not look or act like every other 16-19-year-old girl. Similarly, Rodrigo produced track eleven, “pretty isn’t pretty.” When Rodrigo mentions, “There’s always somethin’ in the mirror that I think looks wrong,” listeners cannot help but think the admission is so real of her. Most teenage girls are so insecure and are continuously compared to other girls. It is a never-ending cycle of comparison, “and everybody’s keepin’ it up, so you think it’s you”. Following that lyric, Rodrigo says, “‘Cause pretty isn’t pretty enough anyway,” a perfect way to describe girls in this generation. The feeling of trying to fit into everyone’s criteria of that “perfect girl” on Pinterest or Instagram is so stressful and emotional.
The last track on the album is “teenage dream,” which offers so many different parallels between this album and “SOUR.” She opens the song by singing, “When am I gonna stop being great for my age and just start being good?” and asks a number of other rhetorical questions about being a teenager that will resonate as well. She continuously talks about her age and the difference between how adults treated her when she was on Disney Channel to now, being 19.
Rodrigo outdid herself with this album. It is different from what every other pop artist is putting out right now considering its punk-rock vibe it gives off. The recording of it is so unique and suits her and her personality perfectly. “GUTS” is also very early 2000s-2010s, similar in style to artists such as Avril Lavigne or even Smash Mouth.
