“Bad idea right?” No, I think Olivia Rodrigo’s recent album GUTS was a great idea… right?
Rodrigo, now 21, released her first album Sour just under three years ago. In September 2023, GUTS was released and last month her deluxe version of GUTS (spilled) was released.
When listening to the original album I was awed (although not surprised) at how Rodrigo could take me from feeling depressed to rageful in minutes. Rodrigo’s talent impressed me since the beginning of her career. After diving deeper into this album, I categorized all songs into three categories: sadness, exes, and feminine rage.
Sadness
This category contains heartbreak, depression, and jealousy. All while falling under the umbrella of sadness.
There are six songs in this category (stylized lowercase, I know title formatting otherwise): “lacy”, “making the bed”, “logical”, “the grudge”, “pretty isn’t pretty”, and “teenage dream”.
“And I know in my heart, hurt people hurt people. And we both drew blood, but, man, those cuts were never equal,” Rodrigo writes in the song “the grudge”.
Her mastery of vulnerable songwriting comes across in her lyrics, where we see Rodrigo express the heartbreak of millions of teenage girls.
“I could change up my body, and change up my face. I could try every lipstick in every shade. But I’d always feel the same. ‘Cause pretty isn’t pretty enough,” Rodrigo sings in “pretty isn’t pretty”.
Feeling insecure is a common theme among teen girls, Rodrigo sympathizes with this group which makes her so popular today. Sadness, an unfortunately common theme, is so perfectly expressed in my “sadness” section of GUTS.
Exes
While this category may seem similar to sadness, there is a distinct difference. My category of “exes” is about making bad decisions regarding exes; it is about getting back together with them- and not always in the smartest, most holy way.
Rodrigo relates to her audience by sharing her raw experiences with them in her songs “bad idea right?”, “get him back”, and “love is embarrassing”.
“I wanna key his car. I wanna make him lunch. I wanna break his heart. Then be the one to stitch it up. Wanna kiss his face… with an uppercut. I wanna meet his mom, just to tell her her son sucks.”
This rage directed towards exes is something teens know all too well.
My favorite song in this section has got to be “love is embarrassing”. This song highlights what it feels like to pour your heart out to someone to get virtually nothing in return.
Rodrigo’s genius and teenage experience is expressed in her lyrics in this section, which shows all of her listeners that “god, love’s f****** embarrassing.”
Feminine rage
My favorite section and three of my top five songs on her album fall under my category of “feminine rage”.
The three songs in this section, “all-american b*tch”, “vampire”, and “ballad of a homeschooled girl” address why being a girl can suck, having exes can suck, and why sometimes, it’s ok to have pure rage just because.
“I broke a glass, I tripped and fell. I told secrets I couldn’t tell. I stumbled over all my words. I made it weird, I made it worse. Each time I step outside, it’s social suicide,” sings Rodrigo in “ballad of a homeschooled girl”.
These songs validate tons of girls across the world who get upset because frankly, most of the time being a teenage girl sucks. Between the catcalling, exes, bullying, and never-ending feelings of depression and rage sometimes displayed across the screens of social media, being a girl in today’s society is very hard.
Rodrigo expresses all of her feelings through lyrics and in song, but her lyrical genius doesn’t come to an end after GUTS. On March 22nd, Rodrigo released the deluxe version of her album GUTS (spilled).
Four of her five new songs fit perfectly into one of my three categories.
Adding to the sadness category is “girl ive always been”, “scared of my guitar” and “stranger”.
Adding to exes (with some feminine rage) is “obsessed”. And her fifth song, creating an entirely new category of love is “so american”.
So, in the end, it is clear everyone should spill their GUTS and listen to Rodrigo’s 4.5-star album, and new deluxe songs.
