Pop-punk princess Olivia Rodrigo’s sophomore album, GUTS, has skyrocketed to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 200, boasting more than 302,000 albums sold in the United States and over 100 million streams.
Brimful of spunk, rock-chick anthems and a sprinkle of melancholy, GUTS is an ode to the recklessness, humiliation and painful self-awareness of youth – all delivered in the star’s signature candid charisma.
The album’s first single Vampire, released on 30 June, has re-entered the Billboard singles chart to secure the top spot on the back of over 23 million streams worldwide.
In a note to fans, the star said she conceived most of the album when she was 19, “a year that, for me, was filled with lots of confusion, mistakes, awkwardness & good old fashioned teen angst.” This perfectly sums up the album, as it traverses the overwhelming societal pressures young girls face in “all-american bitch”, to the tumultuousness of teen relationships in “get him back”.
“Bad idea right?” is arguably the best track on the album, and recounts the singer’s ill-advised – and very relatable – behaviour in excruciating detail. A messy masterpiece, Rodrigo debates with her inner voice of reason, which inevitably comes off second best to bad self-image mixed with a little bit of alcohol. As a testament to the hardiness of youth, any latent shame is dismissed with “Fuck it, it’s fine”.
One thing is for certain: GUTS is a rollercoaster we would happily climb on.