The Weekly Coos

Since the release of “Driver’s License,” Olivia Rodrigo has been under this microscope of mass fame where her actions get documented heavily, and the world must know what kind of boba tea she’s drinking; you know, typical steps into reaching superstardom within the harsh Film and Music industry. Propped by Disney for years, it was easy to see the industry plant-like push with subsequent singles and appraisal of her debut Sour, which I liked quite a bit. Her follow-up, GUTS, is just about the same because there is a slight break between the level of connectivity that may distort your enjoyment. Objectively speaking, GUTS has some fantastic production and writing; however, some aspects of the album feel more centered and relatable to these experiences at her age, and that isn’t a discredit to Rodrigo as her fan base as there are different types of music fans. But she can create great interpersonal songs with gusto, allowing listeners from all walks to enjoy her story from this teenage perspective. To put it mildly, GUTS is one fantastic follow-up to Sour, and it’s okay not to connect with it as the music itself is good enough to stand on its own.

It wasn’t after a few plays that it clicked with me. GUTS, and more so Olivia Rodrigo, feels like she got influenced by artists like early Avril Lavigne. The angst is pure; the writing is direct, and, in return, you get hit with some pop-punk bangers and a mix of other fantastic, memorable moments, like in the last minute of “Bad Idea Right?” where the guitar and electric guitar weave this incredible wave reminiscent of a power-rock solo. Like much of the music, that enigmatic moment you hear from the guitars in “Bad Idea Right?” is a recurring instrumental motif, even as it slightly treads into these unique worlds of pop, like with powerful piano-pop “vampires” or the sinister fun, and at times childish, “get him back!” where the hints of mid-2000s Alt-Rock dynamism gets kicked up, like that of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and My Chemical Romance, except more nuanced from beginning to end. GUTS isn’t all this, as Rodrigo digs into her pop-singer-songwriter bag and shifts the mold of the album’s direction with minor pauses for reflection, creating solid equilibrium for one’s journey through all twelve tracks. One of these songs, in particular, “Lacy,” is one of the definitive highlights on the album.

“Lacy” is a pop ballad with some nice synths reminiscent of something you might have heard from music of the 1970s or 1990s – something like Carly Simon or Aimee Mann – the sounds feel more aligned to Olivia Rodrigo’s strengths, specifically tonal control. She can maneuver through melancholy or angst and offer a palette of unique deliveries that help bolster what the song wants to do sonically and emotionally. You hear it prominently on slower songs like “the grudge,” which paints a toxic relationship, but Rodrigo approaches it using elements of a piano ballad combined with Baroque pop aesthetics; it is a trip. How Rodrigo disperses the vocals to flow with the thematic potency of her writing offers a smooth ride from beginning to end, and it’s one of the many highlights, especially as she becomes more open to new things. We hear some shifts in vocal melodies and quirky instrumentations to whole productions that have us hearing some new range from Rodrigo. It makes it worth the listen even with some drawbacks, but when you get something “Lacy” or “Logical,” you hear what Rodrigo can do when she isn’t as direct with age or anything pertinent to her, like “get him back!”

So it’s unfortunate that, for any moment of blissful, reflexive maturity, there is more music that feels centered on subjects that I can’t relate to, like “Making the Bed,” which sees Olivia Rodrigo being loose and having fun with fair-weather friends, which might feel more relative to status and who hangs around you. But like “get him back!” the writing becomes engrained into these purviews and notions that one can’t relate to as much, part of it comes from a division between selves. Though Rodrigo is this normal person, some lyrics cause a divide, causing rifts within relativity. For example, with “Making the Bed,” I remember not having the slight liberty with my friends as a teenager without repercussions from a parental presence at home; it isn’t as black and white, it’s just one aspect that comes out of the nature of Celebrity and how their lives get compared to ours. It’s much of a deterrent as it is just a conflicting nature that makes it slightly hard to fully vibe, even though it’s one helluva follow-up to Sour. More so now, when you hear more of a balance between tempos.

It continues on songs that fail to break past it, like in “ballad of a homeschooled girl,” where she notes about her status and how easily it is to fall into the trappings of being under the guise of Social Media – I’m not famous or so entwined within it that aspects of the writing do little for me; however, if you take that notion away, it’s actually fantastic. Much of the production merits the credit because, in some ways, Rodrigo performs smoothly while sometimes getting cheeky and finding a way to drop a Radiohead reference. So when you hear the work by Dan Nigro, and alongside co-producers Alexander 23, Ian Kirkpatrick, & Ryan Linvill, and as well, Rodrigo, it’s captivating, like when the vocals change octave alongside the instrumentations to create something unique from the start. One example comes from “vampire,” where Rodrigo plays with ballad-esque melodies and dynamic piano-pop rock instrumentations. It’s similar to the final track, “teenage dream;” it progresses similarly, except the amplification comes at the end when the rest of the instrumentations kicks to high gear. 

These songs I’ve mentioned are mostly Dan Nigro productions, and you can hear distinctions like with Alexander 23, who co-produces “get him back!,” and you can hear the difference in the nuanced pop-punk aesthetic created. Or with “the grudge,” where Ryan Linvill’s synth playing adds monstrous depth to the overall cohesion of the layers, giving us another memorable moment on the album. I thoroughly enjoyed this more than Sour, despite some drawbacks. But it’s something I highly recommending checking out, especially if you have a fondness for younger artists replicating what they grew up with – i.e, pop punk with Rodrigo.