Album Review: Olivia Rodrigo, GUTS

GUTS has been a long time coming. The American singer-songwriter has been easily keeping fans tagging along with the promise of an album of equal calibre to her debut, SOUR. As an avid Rodrigo listener myself, there was an ever-present fear the singer would never be able to top the critical acclaim of her first collection – but boy was I wrong – and happily, might I add.

Kicking off with ‘all-american bitch’, the album delves straight into Rodrigo’s brand of alt-pop, followed up by ‘bad idea right?’ the singer’s almost-spoken single. ‘vampire’, the first single of the collection, is fittingly the first ballad of the release.

An unexpected queer ballad comes with ‘lacy’, as fans seemingly learn more about the young artist. As soon as we dip into introspectiveness, we hit electric-guitar-fuelled dance mania with ‘ballad of a homeschooled girl’. Practically whiplashed, GUTS lunges from “Thought your mom was your wife (Ah)/Called you the wrong name twice (Ah)/Can't think of a third line (Ah)/La-la-la-la-la-la (Ah),” to “Sometimes I feel like I don't wanna be where I am/Countin' all of the beautiful things I regret/But it's me who's been makin' the bed.”

Noteworthy tracks include ‘pretty isn’t pretty’, ‘get him back!’, ‘the grudge’ – but the absolute supremo inclusion on GUTS has to be ‘logical’.

Undulating between high-octane punk-pop and delicate, romantic anthems - in addition to virtuoso lyrism, the offering is perfectly built – never letting listeners get too comfortable in sadness or happiness. Contemplative lyrics and instrumentalism perfection have created a complete and total masterpiece.

Rodrigo, you’ve done it again.

Listen: ‘logical’