Music Review: Olivia Rodrigo rages in opposition to the machine and dangerous males with humor on ‘GUTS’

By Associated Press

LOS ANGELES: On Friday, Olivia Rodrigo — the Grammy winner finest recognized for her 2021 smash single “drivers license” — launched her extremely anticipated sophomore album, “GUTS.”

It’s an apt title, as a result of audacious she is: Across 12 tracks, Rodrigo builds off the life experiences of a pop famous person now within the throes of fame — and her early 20s — with an acute knowledge.

From the bloodsucking piano ballad “vampire” to the cheeky backslide anthem “bad idea right?” (Rodrigo has saved the all-lowercase titles that styled her debut), “GUTS” is at occasions a pop-punk album unafraid of taking dynamic swings, and a diaristic bloodletting.

But these lead singles hid better moments: opener “all-american bitch,” impressed by a cast-off quote from a younger hippie in Joan Didion’s “The White Album” essay assortment, is pop-punk knowledgeable by Liz Phair or, like, probably the most obscure Rose Melberg report. Irony and anger are her swords: “I’m grateful all the time / I’m sexy and I’m kind / I’m pretty when I cry,” she sings.

“pretty isn’t pretty” remembers The Cure’s dreamy guitar tones, a reducing treatise on the worth of inconceivable magnificence requirements.

It’s simple to listen to your favourite rock bands represented right here, however in a mode utterly Rodrigo’s personal: Pavement punctuates “ballad of a homeschooled girl,” with lyrics that might double as a AOL away message. Pick your favourite: “Sеarchin’ ‘how to start a conversation?’ on a website (How to flirt?)”, or “Thought your mom was your wife / Called you the wrong name twice / Can’t think of a third line.”

“the grudge” is born from “drivers license” — a brave piano energy ballad. Where whisper-singing has develop into the inspiration for a lot of modern younger pop stars, whose greatest singles consequently really feel restrained, Rodrigo’s efficiency is pushed to the bounds. Rage and disappointment will do this to you: They’re maybe pop’s most underutilized instruments — and rock’s biggest asset.

At the highest of her debut album, Rodrigo requested “I’m so sick of 17 / Where’s my f—-ing teenage dream?” in “brutal.” On “GUTS” she solutions it within the nearer “teenage dream”: “I’m sorry that I couldn’t always be your teenage dream,” she sings, the identical girl who made getting her driver’s license a pop music concern for the world. Could adolescence be extra damning?

Long has Rodrigo has been in comparison with her musical antecedent Taylor Swift, however the factors of proof on “GUTS” are few and much between — and within the album’s weakest moments, like “get him back!”, nonetheless far superior to a lesser artist’s biggest uptempo observe. (Special point out goes to the lyric “I wanna meet your mom, just to tell her her son sucks.” Has devastation ever been so humorous?)

“For me, this album is about growing pains and trying to figure out who I am at this point in my life,” Rodrigo stated in a press launch when the album was first introduced. “I feel like I grew 10 years between the ages of 18 and 20 — it was such an intense period of awkwardness and change. I think that’s all just a natural part of growth, and hopefully the album reflects that.”

The musician as soon as once more teamed up along with her shut collaborator Dan Nigro, who produced “SOUR,” her first album that was a multiplatinum debut that received Rodrigo three Grammy Awards and made her the youngest solo artist ever to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Few forces are stronger than a younger inventive girl’s dissatisfaction — solely, after all, if she chooses to wield it. For Rodrigo, it was by no means a query. She’ll simply punctuate it with amusing.

LOS ANGELES: On Friday, Olivia Rodrigo — the Grammy winner finest recognized for her 2021 smash single “drivers license” — launched her extremely anticipated sophomore album, “GUTS.”

It’s an apt title, as a result of audacious she is: Across 12 tracks, Rodrigo builds off the life experiences of a pop famous person now within the throes of fame — and her early 20s — with an acute knowledge.

From the bloodsucking piano ballad “vampire” to the cheeky backslide anthem “bad idea right?” (Rodrigo has saved the all-lowercase titles that styled her debut), “GUTS” is at occasions a pop-punk album unafraid of taking dynamic swings, and a diaristic bloodletting.googletag.cmd.push(perform() googletag.show(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); );

But these lead singles hid better moments: opener “all-american bitch,” impressed by a cast-off quote from a younger hippie in Joan Didion’s “The White Album” essay assortment, is pop-punk knowledgeable by Liz Phair or, like, probably the most obscure Rose Melberg report. Irony and anger are her swords: “I’m grateful all the time / I’m sexy and I’m kind / I’m pretty when I cry,” she sings.

“pretty isn’t pretty” remembers The Cure’s dreamy guitar tones, a reducing treatise on the worth of inconceivable magnificence requirements.

It’s simple to listen to your favourite rock bands represented right here, however in a mode utterly Rodrigo’s personal: Pavement punctuates “ballad of a homeschooled girl,” with lyrics that might double as a AOL away message. Pick your favourite: “Sеarchin’ ‘how to start a conversation?’ on a website (How to flirt?)”, or “Thought your mom was your wife / Called you the wrong name twice / Can’t think of a third line.”

“the grudge” is born from “drivers license” — a brave piano energy ballad. Where whisper-singing has develop into the inspiration for a lot of modern younger pop stars, whose greatest singles consequently really feel restrained, Rodrigo’s efficiency is pushed to the bounds. Rage and disappointment will do this to you: They’re maybe pop’s most underutilized instruments — and rock’s biggest asset.

At the highest of her debut album, Rodrigo requested “I’m so sick of 17 / Where’s my f—-ing teenage dream?” in “brutal.” On “GUTS” she solutions it within the nearer “teenage dream”: “I’m sorry that I couldn’t always be your teenage dream,” she sings, the identical girl who made getting her driver’s license a pop music concern for the world. Could adolescence be extra damning?

Long has Rodrigo has been in comparison with her musical antecedent Taylor Swift, however the factors of proof on “GUTS” are few and much between — and within the album’s weakest moments, like “get him back!”, nonetheless far superior to a lesser artist’s biggest uptempo observe. (Special point out goes to the lyric “I wanna meet your mom, just to tell her her son sucks.” Has devastation ever been so humorous?)

“For me, this album is about growing pains and trying to figure out who I am at this point in my life,” Rodrigo stated in a press launch when the album was first introduced. “I feel like I grew 10 years between the ages of 18 and 20 — it was such an intense period of awkwardness and change. I think that’s all just a natural part of growth, and hopefully the album reflects that.”

The musician as soon as once more teamed up along with her shut collaborator Dan Nigro, who produced “SOUR,” her first album that was a multiplatinum debut that received Rodrigo three Grammy Awards and made her the youngest solo artist ever to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Few forces are stronger than a younger inventive girl’s dissatisfaction — solely, after all, if she chooses to wield it. For Rodrigo, it was by no means a query. She’ll simply punctuate it with amusing.