“GUTS,” the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo, released on Sept. 8 2023, is a pop-punk album that has a different sound than anything she has previously put out before. With the release of this album, it is safe to say Olivia Rodrigo has come into her own sound and is willing to take chances.
Overall, the album is a combination of 12 pop-punk songs, ballads and a lot of songs that have obvious 90s grunge resemblances. The album covers a variety of topics, both things like misogyny and microaggressions faced by women as well as the emotional toll that young love can have. Her first album had a softer, gentler, almost more vulnerable sound to it. The emotion was evident and there were only a couple of songs on the album that weren’t ballads. With this album, it is almost the opposite. Most of the songs have a pop-punk feel while only a couple of songs are slowed down. It was clear she was willing to take more risks on this album, including screams in some of her songs that are like those of 90s alternative rock bands.
The first single for the album that came out, “Vampire,” rose to the top of the charts debuting at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. The second single that was released, “bad idea right?” Had a different sound, with a more rock/alternative sound than previous things she has released. Almost every single song on this album has an upbeat catchy beat, rhythm or melody. There are a lot of instances on this album where it sounds a lot like something that Avril Lavigne would have put out in the peak of her career in the early 2000s. There is a good mix of both faster-paced songs and songs that have a gentler sound too. There were a lot of similarities between the upbeat songs themselves and there were times when it was hard to tell which song was which, a lot of the same instruments and tone being used in the songs.
