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Olivia Rodrigo is a singer-songwriter who rose to fame with her hit song “All I Want,” for her role as Nini in “High School Musical: The Musical, The Series.” Since then, she has been topping the charts with singles such as “Driver’s License” and “Deja Vu” from her debut album titled “SOUR.” This past Friday, Rodrigo released her sophomore album “GUTS” which features a 12-song track list that comes in just under 40 minutes.
Rodrigo’s album opens with “all-american b**ch,” which is very different than my preferred genre of music. Personally, I thought the song was mediocre and very “coming of age” movie intro song. While others may think differently, I think this was a weird song to open up the album with out of the 12 she has. The song itself isn’t terrible, just not what I usually listen to and honestly not what I expected from Rodrigo as her first album had zero skips in my opinion, so I was surprised to hear the first track of this album and already want to skip it.
Following “all-american b**ch” are her two singles titled, “bad idea right?” and “vampire.” I thoroughly enjoyed “vampire” and tolerated “bad idea right?.” I think “vampire” was an incredible song with the buildups and beat; everything from the lyrics to vibe is the song was great to listen to. But for me “bad idea right?,” similar to “all-american b**ch,” is too much of a “coming of age” movie intro song for me and was not something I really enjoyed listening to.
Some songs I did enjoy listening to were “lacy,” “logical,” “the grudge” and “teenage dream.” I think I’m finding a common trend in Rodrigo’s songs as I seem to enjoy the ones that are slow and sad. I really enjoyed listening to all three of these songs, from the lyrics to the rhythm, they were all blessings to my ears.
All the other songs on the album are okay in my opinion, not the best or worst, just tolerable.
While my critique may be harsh on Rodrigo, I believe she has so much potential to make beautiful music and while she has accomplished that in her first album, this second one seems to be lacking a bit. It seems to me that she’s beginning to cater to a certain audience/platform and I’ve already seen my fair share of new TikTok trends using multiple songs from “GUTS.” So, whether it’s for a check or just a change in style, Rodrigo’s album was average to me and could’ve been a lot better.
