Teenage years are tumultuous. Early twenties are worse.
College, friends splitting up and growing apart, first real jobs, finally discovering who you truly are — these years are bountiful if not stressful.
Born in 2003, Olivia Rodrigo and I are not far apart in age. We are both in our early twenties and we are frankly just trying to survive.
This is what makes Rodrigo’s new album, “GUTS,” so powerful, but it is also what makes it so brittle — the facade can crack at any moment.
If Rodrigo’s debut album, “SOUR,” was a representation of how volatile teenage years and teenage love are, then “GUTS” is an ode to how we pick up the pieces to find out who we are in our twenties.
The album’s first single — and arguably its centerpiece — “vampire,” sees Rodrigo in a relationship with an older man, where he sucks the fame and the youth out of her like the titular “vampire.”
The song’s structure is also incredibly engaging with each pre-chorus and chorus building up the instrumental until suddenly the track is over. This abrupt shift feels like a promising start to where the album will truly take off, but it instead proves to be the high point of the record as the rest falls short.
After that third track, the album has some key moments highlighting Rodrigo’s songwriting abilities. However, these efforts are still not enough to “wow” me after “vampire” took me on an emotional roller-coaster for three minutes.
“GUTS” is generally a mix of melancholic pop rock, singer-songwriter tracks and pop-punky, energetic rock tracks.
The tracks “the grudge,” “making the bed,” “logical,” “lacy” and “teenage dream” serve as the inoffensive — albeit heartfelt — ballads on the album, while the more punchy “bad idea right?” “all-american bitch,” “get him back!” and “pretty isn’t pretty” are where the album’s creative wings spread.
Those latter four tracks — as well as “vampire,” which shares some of the same influences — point to a rock revivalism also seen with bands like Måneskin, The 1975 and even modern Paramore.
However, this “rock revival” Rodrigo is pushing with singles and deep cuts like these only makes her ballads more disappointing in comparison.
Tracks like “logical” and “love is embarrassing” display an almost self-aware pettiness by dealing with feelings people sometimes do not like to admit.
“God, love’s fuckin’ embarrassin’/Just watch as I crucify myself/For some weird second string/Loser who’s not worth mentioning,” Rodrigo sings.
Rodrigo’s more serious lyrical matters are heard in tracks like “vampire” and “pretty isn’t pretty,” which meld both amazing instrumentation and great lyrics into a vivid soundscape.
If Rodrigo’s target audience loves poppy, lovesick cry songs, then this album is for them. If they like erratic, dancey pop-punk tracks, then this is the album for them.
However, if Rodrigo wants to progress as an artist while also pushing the pop and rock landscapes to their limits, she should play to her strengths and embrace her more alternative and grungy side.
Overall, while “GUTS” is a step up lyrically and sonically compared to Rodrigo’s previous release, the album still has the fragility to shatter into thousands of heartbroken pieces when dropped.
The album ends with the song “teenage dream” where Rodrigo finishes by singing, “They all say that it gets better/It gets better the more you grow/Yeah, they all say that it gets better/It gets better, but what if I don’t?”
I hope Rodrigo grows and learns from her heartbreak. She has proven to be one of the few artists in the pop landscape today to be pushing boundaries, and for that, I look forward to hearing what she does next.
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
