Once again, Olivia Rodrigo has blessed us with another purple-colored album, giving us breakup songs and teenage rage all in one. While similar to her debut album, Rodrigo has become much more mature and isn’t afraid to delve into the angstiness. These songs are definitely headbangers as well and some will make you want to curl up and bawl your eyes out. I give you “GUTS”.

1. all-american b*tch  

I am unwell. Rodrigo putting this song as the first one on her sophomore album was very strategic of her. It gives back some of her teenage years from her debut album by showing her rage but it also shows that she is over being a teenager and she is grown. The song goes from a slow acoustic rhythm to a very fast-paced electric guitar chorus, showing the two different sides of her. “Forgive and I forget / I know my age and I act like it / Got what you can’t resist, I’m a perfect all-American-” is the chorus, giving her tale of what it is like to be a so-called ‘all-American girl’. The second time she sings the chorus she ends up screaming from her gut, hinting at the name of her album called “GUTS”. 

2. bad idea right?

Coming out as her second single before releasing the album gave a lot of intel on what this album is about. Seeing your ex again is a bad idea, right? Rodrigo thinks so too. While she’s out with her friends she gets a text from her ex asking her to come over and without even thinking she decides to leave. Rodrigo herself is aware that it’s a bad idea to go but she decides to anyway, singing “Yes, I know that he’s my ex, but can’t two people reconnect? / ‘I only see him as a friend,’ the biggest lie I ever said”. He obviously does not care about her because she sings “And I pull up to your place, on the second floor / And you’re standin’, smiling at the door” which means he never even bothered to go downstairs to get her continuing “And I’m sure I’ve seen much hotter men / But I really can’t remember when” which concludes that she has no interest in him but the thought of her ex wanting her back adds to her interest making her go. 

3. vampire 

As the first single for her sophomore album, I was  a bit underwhelmed. Maybe it’s because I have heard the song a billion times but I am not a big fan. The song starts off slow but ends up building to a chaotic drum-filled chorus. They are quite catchy lyrics though “You said it was true love, but wouldn’t that be hard? / You can’t love anyone, ‘cause that would mean you had a heart / I tried to help you out, now I know that I can’t / ‘Cause how you think’s the kind of thing I’ll never understand”. It goes through tales of her ex tearing her apart, leaving her in the dust, and generally gaslighting her through their entire relationship. 

4. lacy

Asking for forgiveness and attention sums up this song. I think this song can be about an old friend that you’ve parted ways with and are not talking to anymore. It is hard because you are wanting their opinion but they’re not in your life anymore giving you no one to talk to. Her singing “Dear angel Lacy, eyes white as daisies / Did I ever tell you I’m not doing well” singing again “Smart, sexy Lacy, I’m losing it lately” showing that she really just needs someone to talk to like she used to. I believe that this song is a continuation of her song “hope ur ok” from her debut album “SOUR” which is full of sorrow and angst. In the song “hope ur ok” she is also singing to all the people she hasn’t talked to in a while but wants to and I believe she is telling us about one of the girls and her name is Lacy.

5. ballad of a homeschool girl

Not fitting in is the best way to explain this song. Being the quirky awkward girl in the early 2000s is the vibe. I at times trip over my own feet too. Sometimes when you’re hanging out with a group of people you aren’t necessarily familiar with, you end up saying the wrong thing leaving you embarrassed and wondering “Why the hell did I say that’. “I broke a glass, I tripped and fell / I told secret I shouldn’t tell / I stumbled over all my words / I made it weird I made it worse” are perfect examples of embarrassing yourself and having it haunt you at night.

6. making the bed

Trying to be someone that you’re not and hiding your true self to fit in with a new group of people that your boyfriend is friends with is this song. This song truly encompasses the feeling of wanting something until you have it, enjoying the chase more than the experience. “Well, sometimes I feel like I don’t wanna be where I am / Gettin’ drunk at a club with my fair weather friends / Push away all the people who know me the best / But it’s me who’s been making the bed” You end up losing all of your other friends because impressing your new ones has become such a priority to you that you don’t even realize that you aren’t gaining any but you’re losing many. You’re not just losing friends, you’re losing anything that you ever valued because their values have become more important to you than your own.

7. logical 

The tale of a gaslighting relationship. If anyone dated Nate from the TV show, Euphoria, that would be this song. Sometimes as a girl, you believe that you can change a guy but that is rarely ever the case. In the end, men stay the same with their manipulation and mind-twisting. “The sky is green, the grass is red / You mean all those words you said / I’m sure that girl is really your friend” meaning that she chooses to be clueless to all of the facts given to her because she loves him even though this toxic relationship is awful for her because nothing in it is logical.

8. get him back!

“get him back!” is revenge at its peak. This song tells a tale of planning revenge on an ex without him knowing. It also carries a double meaning, demonstrating that she wants to get back at him through revenge and also wanting to get back in a relationship with him. She wants to ‘get him back’ for everything he has done wrong to her by leading him on and getting him when he least expects it and the lyrics “Oh, I wanna key his car, I wanna make him lunch” really depicts that. While she does miss him, she does want him to feel the amount of pain that he gave her. 

9. love is embarrassing

Becoming a fool for someone you weren’t even dating becomes embarrassing at times. You pour your entire heart out into someone and then realize that they’ve got you lower on your list than you expected. “I told my friends you were the one / After I’d known you, like, a month / And then, you kissed some girl from high school / And I stayed in bed for, like, a week” This song is a PSA to never get too attached to a guy cause you never know when they are going to up and leave you.

10. the grudge 

The pain someone can give you is never as big as the grudge you hold against them. The amount of anger and tension built up in someone wanting to get revenge on another is never greater than whatever they did to upset you. “The arguments that I have won against you in my head / In the shower, in the car, and in the mirror before bed” this is replaying that fight over and over again is so painful sometimes you just want to scream because you know a million different ways that you could have handled it differently.

11. pretty isn’t pretty

This song shows that Rodrigo is just like all of us. Like most of us, Rodrigo can become insecure at times and this song really portrays that. Looking at photos of others, and wishing we looked that way, is a common feeling that many of us have. This song pivots such raw emotion and the vulnerability is intense. Rodrigo singing, “Fix the thing you hated / And you’d still feel insecure” explains that we all have things that we wish we could alter about ourselves, and in the end nothing changes. Even if you were able to change everything you didn’t like about yourself, there would always be opinions lingering, whether it be from yourself or from others.

12. teenage dream

“teenage dream” is nothing like Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream”, it is actually the complete opposite. I believe that this song is a letter of goodbye to Rodrigo’s teenage years welcoming her into her 20s because she knows that she will never be an artist again as a teenager after this. “I’ll blow out the candles, happy birthday to me / Got your whole life ahead of you, you’re only 19 / But I fear that they already got all the best parts of me / And I’m sorry that I couldn’t always be your teenage dream”. When people say that she has a long way to go, she already feels like she’s done everything and that she has peaked in her teens and everything is going downhill from there.

Rodrigo had definitely wowed us with another one. There were some flops but most of them were bangers. I can’t wait to jam out to this album and I hope you do too.