3 years of Guts by Olivia Rodrigo

No one spills their guts quite like Olivia Rodrigo and 2026 marks the third birthday of the pop star’s sophomore album: Guts. Released on 8 September 2023, Rodrigo’s second studio album built on the success of the juggernaut debut release Sour which had spawned hits such as ‘Driver’s License’ and ‘Déjà vu’ and firmly established her as one of the leading Gen Z pop girls.

I have grown up alongside Rodrigo, who began her career starring as Nini in Disney’s High School Musical: The Musical, and Guts remains the perfect encapsulation of what it is like to be a 19-year-old girl navigating the messiness of early adulthood. After being a casual fan, Guts fully converted me to be a die-hard Olivia Rodrigo fan. 

On this album, Rodrigo commits to being an insightful, storytelling lyricist and experiments further with the pop-punk sound in the style of artists such as Avril Lavigne and Hayley Williams. The opening track ‘All American-B*tch’ is a tongue-in-cheek, moment of defiance against the competing standards of femininity filled with thrashing guitars which begins with light, airy vocals and descends into punk-fuelled rage. ‘Bad Idea Right?’ hones a delivery style of Rodrigo’s that I have come to love: her ironic, self-aware talk-singing. The pre-chorus builds up the electric and bass guitars as Rodrigo contemplates whether she should see her ex and explodes into a chant-like, addictive chorus. 

‘Vampire’, the lead single of the album, remains one of my enduring favourite songs of this record and from 2023. Rodrigo uses the metaphor of a vampire sucking the blood of its victim to compare to her poisonous relationship with an older man, her lyrics cutting and raw. The singer uses the ballad form of her first hit ‘Driver’s License’ and makes it crescendo with built-up rage and heartbreak with the addition of drums, guitars and rapid changes of tempo. The last line of the chorus ‘bloodsucker, fame f*cker, bleeding me dry like a goddamn vampire’ will forever be iconic. 

A running thread throughout the album which has become more significant over time is Rodrigo dealing with her sudden rise to fame as a teenager. This uncertainty and insecurity about becoming a pop ingenue adds another complexity to the album away from short-lived romantic relationships. ‘Making the Bed’ is a stripped-back piano ballad which explores her loss of control after becoming famous and acknowledging her choice to be a musician has meant she has had to learn to cope with that. The song features some of Rodrigo’s most concise yet powerful images, ‘they tell me that they love me like I’m some tourist attraction’ being among them. ‘Teenage Dream’, the album closer and a deliberate reference to Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream, sees Rodrigo contemplate whether she can make the jump to being a respected adult pop star and fears her best work may have already been done. Thankfully, this is not true. 

Revisiting Guts after the release of You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love earlier this year has been an interesting experience as it demonstrates the talent and vision she had and how she has developed this into her early twenties. Rodrigo affirms herself as an emotional storyteller with an ear for catchy hooks and talented vocalist who could choose to become a pop or rock star. The Rodrigoverse was expanded and will remain a time capsule of 19-year-old me for a long time.

Written by, Eve Hutchinson