A month ago today, 20 year old actress and award-winning singer Olivia Rodrigo dropped her sophomore album titled “GUTS”. The album was long awaited after the immense success of her debut album “SOUR” in May of 2021. The new album has a 2000s Disney Channel original movie feel in the best, most nostalgic way possible. With tracks like “all-american b*tch” and “ballad of a homeschooled girl”, you feel like jumping on your bed and screaming the lyrics. But she also does the contrary so well and with tracks like “lacy” and “the grudge” that make you want to bury yourself in the blankets of your bed and just listen. The album is filled with electric and acoustic guitar that gives you the perfect blend of angst and sorrow. Compared to her first album, the tracks of “GUTS” evoke a feeling of confidence as opposed to the more insecure lyrics of her first studio album. She has a power and acceptance over the men that her songs seem to be about.Rodrigo has this new style of crescendo talking type of singing like in the song “bad idea right?” The build of emotions resonates with so many people and makes her music all the more relatable.

Her songwriting and storytelling plays a huge part in her success. She manages to connect with so many young people who are experiencing this new form of love. Where it’s so easy to be manipulated and have secrets kept from you with everyone hiding behind a screen. She uses clever wordplay and lyrics like “I want to meet his mom just to tell her her son sucks.” (“get him back!”) to add even more personality into her songs. The album feels like a diary with the way she shifts from frustration to acceptance to lust from song to song. The way Olivia crafts her bridges specifically have become a fan favorite. Those couple lines of the song seem to alway hit the hardest or warrant the most reaction. Overall, the album has a really playful, vulnerable but powerfulteenage feel.The album’s final track,”teenage dream”, ties the whole thing together with one last emotional goodbye to her teenage years. Olivia Rodrigo is one of so many young talents that are taking the world by storm and will continue to. Artists like Laufey, Conan Gray, Dominic Fike. Sabrina Carpenter and more are making fun, unique and all around lovely music that makes fans want to support them even more These young stars are producing songs they genuinely care about and I can’t wait to hear more.