Hello, everyone! Before I talk about this album, I want to talk about a stereotype made about online music critics—the idea that online music critics just want to be ‘cool’ and praise all the albums from underground artists, and give negative reviews to mainstream artists … and I always say that I’d rather just be honest about how I feel rather than just try to be ‘cool’, and I think that’s the case with a lot of music critics, so I don’t fully understand that stereotype.

But okay, maybe it’s not really that much of a stereotype … honestly, I’m not sure. But I feel like it probably is; I’ve just seen a lot of different things people have said which all add up to me to feel like it’s a stereotype, even though I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone actually make all those assumptions about all music critics.

But yeah, maybe ‘stereotype’ isn’t the right word—or maybe it is, I’m not sure—but as much as I kind of don’t want to admit it, I can understand why someone might make that assumption about me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen/heard someone assume that about me, but I would kind of get it, considering that, as someone who reviews a lot of albums, the majority of which are not super mainstream, chances are my favourite albums of the year aren’t going to be the most mainstream albums out there.

But what I kind of even less want to admit is that, if you make that assumption about me, you wouldn’t be totally wrong. Because yes, I’ll admit there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to give super positive reviews to mainstream albums, and that would much rather praise the underground stuff. But keep in mind I said ‘a part of me’, and really, at the end of the day, I’d rather just be honest about how I feel.

And to be totally honest, despite the album not getting super positive reviews from critics, I think Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album SOUR is pretty great! And yes, I know the influences are obvious, but I think she did a really good job of taking those influences and doing her own thing with them, and when there are so many good hooks, great lyricism, and Olivia’s fantastic vocals … well, it led to an album that really clicked for me!

And you might think I was really excited going into this album, but after hearing the singles, I was a bit worried about it. First there was “vampire” which I mostly liked but didn’t feel all that excited by, and then “bad idea right?” felt like a weaker version of “brutal”, and that’s coming from someone who feels that “brutal” isn’t one of the better tracks on SOUR.

So, I kind of had a feeling this might be a sophomore slump … but I wanted to give it a chance, and I was still pretty excited about this. So, did it live up to my not super high expectations?

Well … honestly, I’m not even sure it did. Now, let me just make this clear: I’m not saying this album is bad. In fact, it’s pretty decent … but at least to me, it’s not much more than decent. And yes, if I had a much larger audience, the comment section would be full of comments saying, ‘Why would you possibly say this?’ But, as always, this is just how I personally feel.

So, in other words, while I know this is subjective, to me personally, this feels like a sophomore slump. And I’m not talking about sales, or chart success, or anything like that … not even critical acclaim, because this seems to be getting more acclaim than SOUR. But in terms of ‘quality’—and I put that in quotes because the quality of any album is subjective—I think this is a big disappointment.

But the more I think about it, I feel like I shouldn’t be all that surprised I’m saying this. I mean, like I said earlier, the singles didn’t really do all that much for me, and one notable thing I noticed in those songs that felt like a big step down from SOUR was the production … and unfortunately, that’s something I’ve noticed with most of this album, even though Dan Nigro—who produced SOUR—also produced this album.

Now, that’s not to say there aren’t moments where the production works for me, because there are; I like how the vocal production contributes to the frustrated feeling of “ballad of a homeschooled girl”. I like the way the strings and piano complement each other on the closing track, “teenage dream”. And at points the percussion is absolutely crushing, like in the aforementioned “ballad of a homeschooled girl”, as well as “all-american bitch” and “love is embarrassing”.

But often the production feels messy in a way that doesn’t really fit the song. For example, there’s “vampire”, a song in which Olivia is calling out an ex’s behaviour, and the lyrics have a lot of bite to them (I’m not sure if this pun was intended or not), but there are a few notable things in the production that hold it back for me. First of all, for a song that’s supposed to be so powerful and fierce, the airy production just feels really awkward to me. But there’s also that post-chorus with the huge shots of instrumentation that sounds like it’s supposed to be that huge moment the entire song was building up to … and unfortunately it just doesn’t have a lot of impact for me, and it just feels more messy than anything, with the snare sounding drowned out in the mix, and the instruments don’t complement each other all that well if you ask me.

“lacy” feels like a personal song showing what’s going on in the narrators head, and for some reason the vocal layering just feels out of place here.

And “bad idea right?” has honestly soured on me (also not sure if this pun was intended or not) since I first heard it, with some guitar timbres that just sound awkward when paired with the drums (with the exception of that awesome guitar solo on the bridge) and some messy-sounding vocal layering in the chorus. And also, the snare sounds clunkier than I would have liked.

And there’s also the annoyingly airy drums in “making the bed”, the stiff guitar timbre in “the grudge”, and lots of other nitpicks I could make, a lot more than there are on SOUR.

But still, SOUR had its moments where the production didn’t really click for me, and I’m still a big fan of that album … but here, there’s just a lot less for me to like overall.

I don’t like the vocal melodies on this album as much as on SOUR, with some songs just feeling totally devoid of vocal melodies that really click for me at all, like “making the bed” and “bad idea right?”.

And then there’s “the grudge”, which to me sounds like a much weaker version of “drivers license”, with a melody that sounds similar but not nearly as great.

Now, it’s worth mentioning that Olivia is a very good singer, and once again her vocals do elevate the album … but also, I don’t think there’s a vocal performance here as amazing as in “drivers license” … still, though, the vocals are mostly really good here. For example, as much as I’m not a huge fan of the production on “vampire”, Olivia’s vocals do mostly save the song, and it’s one of multiple songs here in which her personality really shines through, with another example being “ballad of a homeschooled girl”, which not only has great production, but her vocals really convey the feeling of frustration in the lyrics.

And speaking of which, how are the lyrics on this album?

Well, as I often say, analyzing lyrics is not one of my strong suits as a reviewer, at least I don’t think it is. But still, while I like some of the lyrics here, overall I think SOUR is quite a bit better lyrically than this album, as I feel like the lyrics on that album are more complex, interesting, and unique. Even a song like “vampire”, which I do like the lyrics to, doesn’t feel nearly as fascinating lyrically as the best songs from SOUR, such as “happier” or “drivers license”. And some moments here don’t feel interesting to me at all lyrically, like “bad idea right?” which has lots of cringey moments, and overall it just feels like a song I’ve heard many times before.

And there’s also “get him back!”, which is easily my least favourite song here, with its annoying chorus, messy production, and … look, I get that the lyrics are supposed to be messy, but it just doesn’t work for me at all. It shows her wishing to get back together with an ex who treated her terribly, partially to get revenge and partially because she really misses him … and I get that it’s supposed to be showing complicated emotions, but her feelings toward this person aren’t really made all that clear in the song. And yes, I get that it was probably the point, and I get how it could work for some people, but for some reason it makes the song less striking for me, and I’m not entirely sure why … and to me, this song gets quite annoying.

So, overall … well, again, I don’t think it’s a bad album. There are moments here that I like, and the majority of it is at least decent, but I’m just not all that wowed by it, and I highly doubt I’ll be returning to this as much as SOUR. I’m hoping this was just a sophomore slump and that I’ll like her next album a lot more. But for this … I’ll go with a 6/10. Again, there are elements of this album that I like—a lot of the elements that worked for me on SOUR are still here … but I’m not going to dance around the fact that this was a pretty big disappointment for me. But, as always, feel free to let me know what you think in the comments. This is all just my opinion, and I’m curious to hear yours.

Thanks for reading my review of GUTS, and I’ll be back with more reviews soon!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 6/10
Favourite Tracks: “all-american bitch”, “vampire”, “ballad of a homeschooled girl”, “love is embarrassing”, “teenage dream”
Least Favourite Tracks: “get him back!”