Review of Olivia Rodrigo’s album “Guts”

The new album of newly minted pop star Olivia Rodrigo, “Guts,” received enviably high marks from critics and, according to all forecasts, will top the American chart in the first week of release. Rodrigo reflects on the heroine of the songs Olivia and her eternal tossing Igor Gavrilov.

Having barely released her first album, Olivia Rodrigo reserved her place in history as the debutante who managed to surpass Billie Eilish in the speed of her sensational rise. The first and second singles of her career took turns starting at number one on the American chart – this had never happened to anyone before. The point of rapid growth for her was the song “Driver License”, the video for which has currently been viewed 475 million times on YouTube. Upon the release of “Driver License”, the song’s innovation and hit potential was compared to Lorde’s “Royals” and Hozier’s “Take Me To Church”. It’s not just about vocal capabilities: various commentators were greatly impressed by the ability to combine stylistically contrasting parts within one song. The debut album “Sour” generally followed the trend of girl pop music, but was extremely variegated – it began with loud punk, turning into a lullaby (“Brutal”), pastoral pop “Deja Vu” intertwined with lo-fi, skate punk crossed with garage rock (“Good 4U”). In the new album “Guts” Rodrigo as a writer climbed even higher.

The album’s opening title track, “All-American Bitch,” features a timid, girlish indie-folk verse and a chorus reminiscent of the pop-punk of No Doubt and Avril Lavigne. At the beginning of the song, “light as a feather,” the heroine becomes “hard as a board” by the chorus. These comparisons, taken from a children’s game, as well as from the arsenal of illusionists, are directly related to the lyrical heroine of the album. At 20 years old, Olivia Rodrigo is not going to give up the image of a high school student, burdened with all the problems of a tender age: gossip, bad parties, bad company, rivalry with school queens, anxiety and eternal dissatisfaction with herself. But due to her unconditional theatrical talent, the singer cranks up the drama of this image to the limit.

The highlight of the album is the song “Vampire,” which describes a toxic relationship with a boyfriend. At first glance, nothing new. The hero takes advantage of the heroine, exploiting her status and age. This is probably not the first or tenth song written by a fan of the Twilight series, and even Olivia Rodrigo herself had a song called “The Twilight Song” long before her worldwide popularity. And comparing the world of vampires with the world of show business is also not the first time. But “Vampire” is not even a song, but a complexly tailored epic, evoking associations ranging from Meat Loaf to Arcade Fire.

“Vampire” begins as a piano ballad, in which the singer embraces her naivety and talks about what it’s like to experience betrayal. But very soon the song gains momentum, and now the tone of the suffering victim changes to the intonation of the accuser: “You sold me for spare parts, you sunk your teeth into me, a bloodsucker and a walker of celebs, drinking all the blood out of me like a damn vampire.” “Vampire” takes on an epic scale comparable to Meat Loaf’s “I Would Do Anything For Love.” At the climax, Olivia Rodrigo and her co-writer Dan Nigro add a techno thrasher to the song, making “Vampire” the perfect opera for a generation raised on High School Musical.

Olivia Rodrigo emphasizes the operatic excess of the composition with the help of an ironic video in which all the troubles literally (right on stage) befall the leading role in the musical. And yet, Rodrigo’s main instrument remains her voice. It’s not the scumbag boyfriend who’s pulling the veins out of her, it’s she, rising higher and higher in the steps of her range, tearing her listener’s soul to pieces.

The album “Guts” speaks to today’s audience, but listening to Olivia Rodrigo, you understand that girls under 20 are concerned about the same problems as ten or a hundred years ago. This seems obvious, but today they are surrounded by a completely different reality, and in the era of “new ethics” it is customary to describe it in completely different words. Olivia Rodrigo also comes up with new words; they say that the term “fame-fucker” is her invention. But she’s not shy about taking on tired themes like vampires and playing oldies like pop-punk. This is something that everyone understands.