After the commercial success of the critically acclaimed album SOUR, anticipation and speculation loomed over the release of three-time Grammy award-winning artist, Olivia Rodrigo’s, sophomore album GUTS. The album, which was released on 8th September, has taken another commercial success for Rodrigo and is currently topping charts across the world. From being a star on Disney’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Rodrigo has taken the music industry by storm since the release of ‘drivers license’ in January 2021. Her debut single achieved No.1 on the Billboard charts and broke records around the world. Explaining the pressure of writing a new album, Rodrigo focused more on writing and creating songs that she would listen to, rather than those just for commercial success. From this, it is clear that she has perfected a recipe for her musical ability, taking a maturer approach compared to her previous album.
Rodrigo previously released only two singles from the album, ‘vampire’ and ‘bad idea right?’, both perfectly summing up the new ambience that she is trying to experiment within this album.
The opening ballad of ‘all-american b*tch’ presents the activating and influential move to more rock-based music that Rodrigo is trying to portray across her album. The song flows from soft guitar-based melodies to punky guitar and drum-filled segments. This is a foreshadowing opening for the dynamic range of musical abilities that are yet to come within the album. From softer piano and acoustic guitar-based ballads like ‘lacy’ and ‘logical’ to raging, sharp declarations of emotion in ‘get him back!’ and ‘ballad of a homeschooled girl’, GUTS has a variety of elements that showcase the fresh ingenuity from Rodrigo.
Rodrigo displays bold, compelling and dynamic lyrics that are heard across the entirety of the album, as she explicitly defines the personal affair she had with her “19th year on earth”. As the Rolling Stones mention, her “pop-punk bangers are full of killer lines”, this being created with her producer Dan Nigro. For ‘Livies’ (the title given to fans of Olivia Rodrigo), the duo of Rodrigo and Nigro is one that is compelling in the art that they create. Not only are they partners in music, but also very good friends, creating a partnership that is unique within the industry.
Rodrigo displays bold, compelling and dynamic lyrics that are heard across the entirety of the album
As the album is dominating the charts across the world, the success of both GUTS and Rodrigo individually can be seen through the newly announced “GUTS World Tour”. With more countries to be announced, Rodrigo has already sold out her arena-based North American and European leg of the tour. This includes iconic venues such as the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, Maddison Square Garden in New York City and The O2 arena in London. In fact, the demand was so substantial that she increased the number of shows, now totalling 77. Rodrigo has a boundless career ahead of her, and this is merely just the start. If her considerable success has been achieved in just under three years, we can only imagine what else the 20-year-old will accomplish.
