What happens when you go from Disney bit-part player to pop’s biggest new superstar in the space of a month? It’s a very specific mindbender that Olivia Rodrigo tries to unravel on her follow-up to 2021’s record-breaking, Grammy-winning debut, Sour (the album that featured her transformational hit Drivers License). As with that album, Guts dabbles in pepped-up pop-rock (the deliciously camp Bad Idea Right?; the bratty Get Him Back!) and delicate, close-mic balladry as on the pretty-sounding Lacy. But pay closer attention and Lacy drips with bile, the seemingly angelic title character, whom Rodrigo idolised, now out to get her: “You poison every little thing that I do.”
A similar sentiment courses through lead single Vampire, which blooms from minimal piano into a dramatic coda of tumbling drums and breathless vocals, its pointed lyrics about bloodsuckers rumoured to be about both an ex-lover and ex-friend Taylor Swift. Elsewhere, Rodrigo turns the focus inwards, grappling with her identity as she moves beyond the expectations of feted teen prodigy (moody closer Teenage Dream) and her attempts to cope with the full glare of fame (Making the Bed). Overall, Guts is perhaps missing Sour’s big pop moments, but as a snapshot of an upturned life it’s consistently fascinating.
