By ELLA SILVA
On September 8, Olivia Rodrigo released her second full studio album, “GUTS.” When her previous album, “SOUR,” was released, it was met with glowing praise, both from her fans and other more casual listeners. It was a massively successful album, and so it felt like we were all waiting with bated breath to see what she was going to do next. The transition from an artist with one very popular album to an artist with more than one album can be a little bit tricky, especially when it comes to Rodrigo because she was so young when making “SOUR,” and her success was so related to the number of viral hits on the album.
So when it came to the release of this album, she had two obstacles to overcome. One: find a sound that is uniquely hers beyond just the sound of one album, especially when considering the very different place in life she finds herself in now compared to when making her previous album. Two: make a mark on the social media landscape that allows her to achieve at least a similar kind of viral success without the boost of it being her first big release after the massive popularity of “drivers license.”
When it comes to the first category, Rodrigo nailed it. “GUTS” manages to sound older, more mature, and more evolved in terms of musical style, while still containing the relatable rawness of “SOUR.” She even chose to release singles from the album following the same pattern as “SOUR,” which seems to have been very successful. With “SOUR,” Rodrigo released the viral success “drivers license,” a dramatic ballad about her personal heartbreak, and followed it up with “good 4 u” a harder-hitting, angry kind of screw-you song directed towards whoever had hurt her. With this album, Rodrigo released “vampire,” another dramatic ballad about heartbreak, and followed it up with “bad idea right?” which while covering a different subject matter than “good 4 u” does have a similar fast-paced punk rock influence that just makes you want to dance and sing along. This single-release combo serves a very specific purpose, showing the general public how versatile an artist Rodrigo is, therefore priming them for an album that contains songs that fall everywhere along her artistic spectrum.
When it comes to the second hurdle, at least when it comes to my personal social media experience, it feels like parts of this album are reaching, if not the same, at least a somewhat equal level of virality. There is a specific trend online currently to post a photo of what you looked like when “SOUR” came out and then what you look like now that “GUTS” is out that seems to be going pretty viral. It might not be the same staggering amount of social media airtime that “SOUR” got, but it’s by no means a flop.
The final, secret obstacle that she needed to overcome with this album was perhaps the most difficult and most random: general public opinion of her art. A lot of the criticism hurled at this album seems to be that people feel this album is childish, that it’s just more teenage angst music, and that Rodrigo is personally way too old to still be making music like this. While this is certainly a perspective that you could have, and art is subjective and therefore you can interpret as you see fit, this take feels incorrect for a number of reasons. The most obvious one: Rodrigo is currently 20 years old. Not even a full year away from being a teenager, meaning that not only was a large majority of this music clearly written when she was still technically a teenager, but it simply isn’t true that the second your age is no longer in the teens that you stop experiencing anything that could be described as “teenage angst.” I personally am about a month and a half from being 20, and as much as I hope that all of my silly little problems just magically go away and I no longer experience jealousy, relationship problems, social anxiety, and general insecurity (just a handful of the many topics covered within the songs on “GUTS”) I am almost certain that all of those things will remain long after I’m technically in my twenties. And because this is true for me, it is reasonable to assume that it’s true for a large portion of Rodrigo’s listeners as well. So “SOUR” was a young girl making an album that was relatable to a lot of people, both young girls like her and people from all sorts of different life experiences, and “GUTS” is too. The only difference is Rodrigo and a large portion of her fanbase are slightly older, and angrier, than before. In this vein, to use the classic overused Heathers line, is “GUTS” full of “teenage angst bullshit”? Yes. But is that angst both valid and very relatable therefore making the album that much better? Also very much yes.
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