Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS is a Love Letter to Girls Everywhere

By Arianna Mioni

Since the release of the singles “vampire” and “bad idea right?,” the world has been anxiously waiting for the release of GUTS. Upon release, the album was deemed to be an even bigger hit than SOUR, gaining a 100/100 from Rolling Stone and a 91 on Metacritic, it was clear that Rodrigo had surpassed all expectations held for her.

With Riot Grrrl influences and a punk-meets-coquette branding, Rodrigo is arguably Gen-Z’s greatest pop-rock princess. Her brilliance and edgy charisma are enough to throw you into an antique loveseat reading The Bell Jar and falling in love with an Australian classmate; she brings out the inner Kat Stratford in everyone. 

The first track, “all-american bitch,” is straight out of a coming-of-age movie; what starts as a slow and serene idea of femininity quickly switches to a chorus filled with angry guitar and screaming. The song takes a satirical take on the social concept of being a woman in America一how we are expected to be the “perfect, all-american bitch.”

“I know my place, I know my place, and this is it!” screams Rodrigo, before leaning back into the expectations held for women. “I’m grateful all the time, I’m sexy and I’m kind, I’m pretty when I cry.”

“ballad of a homeschooled girl” dives into a pool of awkwardness and self-consciousness, accompanied by an upbeat guitar track that makes you want to grab a hairbrush and sing along loudly. “I’m on the outside of the greatest inside joke, and I hate all my clothes, feels like the skin doesn’t fit right over my bones,” Rodrigo sings.

“I stumbled over all my words, I made it weird, I made it worse!” she continues, investigating her own feelings of embarrassment. Rodrigo recognizes these feelings as cause for intense social anxiety, repeating “Each time I step outside, It’s social suicide!”

In “get him back!,” the next single off of the album, Rodrigo presents an interesting dichotomy. While she aims to get her lover back, she also aims for scathing revenge. “Do I love him? Do I hate him? I guess it’s up and down,” she sings. The song is both humorous and confident, turning a situation that would be faced with confusion into one met with empowerment.

“I wanna break his heart, and be the one to stitch it up. I wanna kiss his face, with an uppercut. I wanna meet his mom, just to tell her her son sucks!” Rodrigo repeats in the chorus gleefully, planning her scheme. “get him back!” is arguably one of the most fun songs on the album, packed with lyrics to scream in the car on a girls night; it’s also one of the most relatable with the outlook of today’s dating scene. 

While SOUR focused more on the soul-crushing reality of heartbreak, with ballads galore and teenage melancholy, GUTS is miles more upbeat. Rodrigo’s sophomore album tells the story of entering your twenties: making stupid mistakes, seeking revenge, putting your identity under a microscope, and of course, growing up and fearing that your prime is long gone.

That is not to say that GUTS doesn’t have its fair share of cry-worthy ballads. Tracks like “logical” and “the grudge” lean into the reality of toxic relationships, particularly involving age gaps and manipulation. Rodrigo does not shy away from detailing the damage these relationships do to one’s psyche, with lyrics such as “I know I could’ve stopped it all, God, why didn’t I stop it all?” and “how could anybody do the things you did so easily?”

With “making the bed,” Rodrigo has earned a spot on nearly every girl’s sad playlist. Rodrigo performs a deep self-reflection in this sorrowful track.  “I’m so tired of bein’ the girl that I am” Rodrigo sings, feeling out of place within her own persona. At the end, however, the people we are and how we view ourselves is ultimately a product of our own making: “and I’m playin’ the victim so well in my head, but it’s me who’s been making the bed.”

“lacy” starts out as an affectionate letter to an admired friend. However, the track turns into something similar to “making the bed,” where her introspections get the best of her. Rodrigo endlessly compares herself and shows the yearning to be something better, to be the ideal girl. She talks about the cycle of wanting to be someone else, the pedestals we place other people on when we want to be just like them. 

“Like ribbons in your hair, my stomach’s all in knots, you got the one thing that I want,” Rodrigo writes, detailing her deep-rooted envy and the effects it has on her. The track has a similar undertone to “jealousy, jealousy” from SOUR, an analysis of how jealousy of those around us puts endless pressure on what we think we need to be. Rodrigo closes the song as an open book, no longer hiding her true feelings: “And I despise my jealous eyes and how hard they fell for you…yeah, I despise my rotten mind and how much it worships you.”

GUTS has become one of the most critically acclaimed albums of this year despite it being released quite recently. It’s been showered with a substantial amount of appreciation and praise. The demand for Rodrigo is insanely high; within a day of announcing her 39-stop world tour, Rodrigo added 18 more dates to match the demand, with more dates coming soon. 

But being a female musician is not without a wave of blatant misogyny, no matter your popularity. Since her debut, Rodrigo has faced a massive wave of criticism from all sides of the internet.

We’ve seen it happen with countless other women in the industry: all past Disney Channel stars, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, you name it. To the public eye, a woman in the spotlight is deemed as a woman who needs to be dimmed. The male-dominated industry and our society cannot afford to watch a woman succeed without torturing her with endless backlash.

With her debut single “driver’s license,” Rodrigo was expected to be a one-hit wonder or an industry plant that would eventually wither and die. And then came the releases of “deja vu” and “good 4 u,” which skyrocketed her into even more fame; SOUR became one of the most critically acclaimed albums of 2021 and an instant classic.

After winning Best New Artist at the 2022 GRAMMYs, many began to suspect that Rodrigo would be hit with the “Best New Artist Curse.” This occurs when an artist essentially peaks with their debut, and falls into a “sophomore slump,” where they cannot outdo their previous release or the public does not approve of their new artistic direction.

Despite these claims, Rodrigo continues to rise above all expectations and deliver a flawless, effortless performance with everything she does. GUTS was a clear reminder that she is here to stay, to influence a new generation and prove all of her biggest critics wrong.

Rodrigo delivers a fresh new sound that still stays true to the person she is at heart: an awkward, anxious, spunky girl who’s just trying to figure out how to navigate the world around her and all that it entails.