Olivia Rodrigo’s new album GUTS lives up to the hype.
Olivia Rodrigo (She/Her) released her sophomore album GUTS on September 8th. The long anticipated follow-up to her Grammy award winning debut album Sour. The first single of the album was “Vampire” which was released on June 30th with its accompanying music video. The song, like most of the album, was written by Olivia Rodrigo and her long time producer Dan Nigro (He/Him).
When asked about the album in an interview with Billboard, Olivia said “I think I got to a place throughout making the record where I really shifted my perspective from being like, ‘Oh, we have to make something that’s gonna impress everyone, and beat the last one!’ … into just trying to make music that I would like to hear on the radio, and once I did that, things started flowing a little easier.”
Some of my highlight songs of the record were “Making the Bed” and “The Grudge”. Both are strong ballads around rationalizing negative situations. “Making the Bed” has a great catchy melody that when mixed with the tense musicality of the piece makes the song heart wrenching.
I really loved the storytelling of “The Grudge”. One of my favorite sections of the song are the lyrics, “And I try to understand why you would do this all to me/ You must be insecure, you must be so unhappy/ And I know, in my heart, hurt people hurt people/ And we both drew blood, but, man, those cuts were never equal”. The way she delivered the line holds so much restraint that gives the build and release of the chorus even more emphasis.
I would recommend anyone who loved Sour to check out this album. I would give it a 9/10.
