Rating: 4.5/5
The rising star of pop, Olivia Rodrigo, has returned with an explosive sophomore album that solidifies her as a triumphant voice of Gen Z.
Following the instant hits on her debut SOUR, Rodrigo immediately became one of the most talked about names in music. From popularity on TikTok to critical praise, Olivia’s claim to fame seemingly happened overnight. After the dust of internet hype settled, questions surrounding the future of Olivia’s career arose. For two years, she coasted on the overwhelming success of SOUR and has remained a popular name among young artists.
Speculation about where Olivia would direct her career stylistically floated among fans and critics alike. In many aspects, her debut dipped its feet into the waters of various subgenres, like pop-punk on “brutal” and “jealousy jealousy,”never quite experimenting or committing to one.
After two years, Olivia returned with her single “vampire,” a gut-wrenching ballad with a climax that asserts her turbulent response to betrayal and the feeling of being used at her age. The single demonstrated a commitment to musical growth, with a passionate vocal performance leagues above her previous work. Thus, the groundwork for a second album was laid down and her sophomore album GUTS was released on Sept. 8th.
Around a month before the release of GUTS, Olivia released the single “bad idea right?,”a left-field pop-punk release following the ballad-inspired “vampire.” The track draws inspiration from the early 2000s pop-punk scene, following the trajectory of Paramore, Avril Lavigne and Hole, though never strays from the angst of its target audience: Gen Z.
With an accompanying music video directed by artistic collaborator Petra Collins, the track shows a shameless dedication to the messy feelings that greet us at the gates of adulthood. Olivia’s dedication to embodying this in a character is a key reason why both the single and GUTS work in favour of what they seek to achieve.
As the first non-single track, the album opener “all-american bitch” begins with a twangy, Americana guitar as Olivia serenades listeners with affirmations of who she is: “I’m as light as a feather, I’m as stiff as a board”. The piece transforms into a pop-punk explosion on the chorus as she continues to make her claims, but with an added touch of shamelessness.
As opposed to submitting to the expectations of her as a woman, she asserts that she “knows her place” as a voice of influence among her generation. After the bridge, she crescendos into a scream that carries the frustration of girls and women growing up alongside her. The track shines a light down the album’s tunnel, illuminating what is to come — a cage fight between Olivia’s subdued folk side and her bombastic punk one. These extremes may seem hard to balance in a cohesive body of work, but Olivia referees the two effortlessly with the fullest intent that this is the music she wishes to make.
At several points, the album returns to the ballads reminiscent of the SOUR era. The attention to her artistic improvement can be heard as she examines more complicated perspectives. On the track “lacy”, Olivia succumbs to her inferiority complex and fluctuates between despising the woman she envies and almost worshipping her on a romantic level.
Of course, the ballads serve as fleeting moments before a following punk inspired track. The humorous “ballad of a homeschooled girl” would not be out of place in a 2000s teen comedy, following a protagonist that always “feels on the outside of an inside joke”. The edginess of this track may be off-putting to some, but it’s expected of Olivia at her age to experience these emotions. There is irony in knowing Olivia’s sheer popularity and the relatability of her music. If everyone feels ostracized from one another, perhaps we have no need to compare ourselves to the status quo in the first place.
During the creation of the album, Olivia knew that in order to evolve artistically she had to give light to every ounce of euphoria and angst. Had it been any other artist, the product of GUTS could have been lukewarm chaos. The glue that holds its jagged pieces together is Rodrigo’s unrelenting authenticity, making GUTS one of this year’s strongest releases and a noteworthy step in the career of this impressive young artist.