Olivia Rodrigo Does It Again
Isabella Geltman, Staff Reporter
American Singer, songwriter, and actress, Olivia Rodrigo, released her sophomore album titled Guts September 8, 2023. With 12 songs totaling about 40 minutes, the album packs a wonderfully tasteful sweet and sour punch.
With high expectations from fans as her debut, Sour, from just over two years ago became the first album to stay in Billboard’s Hot 100 for over a year, she certainly delivered. With scarily accurate lyrics leaving us wondering if our diaries were missing from our secret hiding spots, it was truly an exhilarating listen.
The record not only contains playful and empowering teenage anthems, but absolutely gut wrenching songs, sung truly with hurt and heart. With a range like this, not just lyrically but emotionally, Rodrigo was destined to deliver a beautifully constructed and satisfying album.
Themes of embarrassment, confidence, guilt, shame, and envy are scattered across each song leaving fangirls everywhere deciphering lyrics, trying to decide which one best summed them up in one fell swoop.
Now this wouldn’t be a review if I didn’t tell you my favorite song and without a doubt that would be track four, “Lacy.” This song perfectly encapsulates teenage longing and jealousy. It focuses primarily on a girl, a vision of perfectionism that everyone wishes they were, or could live up to and the self hatred that comes with that desire. It paints obsession and how it leads to a sense of confusion, hopelessness, and when viewed from the outside, the tinge of homo-eroticism that those feelings choke up.
Life isn’t always rosy but that doesn’t mean it’s all dusty either, Rodrigo shows us both sides of the rainbow in the intimacy painted in this album. Giving listeners and Rodrigo a perfect expression and extension of ourselves. She preaches the growth that can be made when you can forgive, even if you can’t forget. Even if Guts is Sour 2.0, it’s 2.0 for a reason, she came back with a sharper bite, sucking the life right out but perfectly renewing us with a signature purple bandaid.
