Nick Walker*
After Sour, comes Guts. Livies, OR2 is here! On Friday, Olivia Rodrigo released her highly-anticipated sophomore album Guts, a 40-minute, 12-track record, featuring songs such as “All-American Bitch” and Katy Perry-referencing “Teenage Dream.”
Following the release, Rodrigo took to social media to thank her fans. “Today is the day!! I feel so many feelings. I feel excited, nervous, proud, but mostly I feel so grateful,” she wrote on Instagram Friday, while thanking her producer Dan Nigro.
She added, “I feel so immensely grateful for everyone who has so generously supported me over the past few years. Thank you to everyone who has listened and streamed and been soo kind.”
All of the tracks on the standard edition of the LP — there’s also reportedly a deluxe version with four additional songs — were either completely produced by, or co-produced with, Nigro, whom Rodrigo worked with on Sour. (“He’s just a genius and I feel really lucky to get to work with him too,” she said at a release party this summer.)
Rodrigo also wrote the vast majority of the songs on her own, besides her singles “Bad Idea Right?” and “Vampire,” along with “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl,” which she co-wrote with Nigro.
Alexander 23 co-produced Track 8, “Get Him Back!,” while Ryan Linvill was tapped for production on “Logical” and “The Grudge.” The four additional tracks on Guts (Deluxe Edition) are titled “Obsessed,” “Scared of My Guitar,” “Stranger” and “Girl I’ve Always Been.”
The singer announced that she’d be releasing Guts upon dropping the single “Vampire.”
“I feel like I grew 10 years between the ages of 18 and 20 — it was such an intense period of awkwardness and change,” she previously wrote in a statement. “I think that’s all just a natural part of growth, and hopefully the album reflects that.”
Rodrigo spoke to Rolling Stone over the summer and said that much of the album looks back at the mistakes she’s made in her life and how she’s grown up thanks to the errors.
“One of my favorite lines in the song is ‘I’ve made some real big mistakes but you make the worst one look fine.’ This album talks about me making a bunch of mistakes in my life and being awkward, not knowing who I am and not knowing what I want,” she told Rolling Stone. “That’s just a really necessary part of life. Looking back, it was super uncomfortable when I was going through it but I think making mistakes and not doing everything perfectly is the only way to figure out who you are and how to grow and evolve.”
“The album’s a lot about that,” she added.
Rodrigo and Nigro recorded Guts between New York and L.A. She first began working on “Vampire” at Electric Lady Studios in late 2022, and it was the first song she really loved from their songwriting sessions, but the sound also ended up informing the rest of Guts.