Singer-songwriter Oliva Rodrigo released a new album titled “Guts” along with the announcement of an upcoming tour starting in February. This is her second full album she has released and it’s already off to a successful start, with her reaching the current top Billboard artist once again after only a span of a couple weeks. 

While listening to the album overall, I realized that it had a few different moods and I really liked the variety. Some songs were slow, while others were more upbeat and had more heavy and layered instrumentals. I was a bigger fan of the more upbeat songs, but overall I liked the album a lot more than I expected. 

One of my favorites was “ballad of a homeschooled girl” because it was so fun and catchy. For the rest of the night I had it stuck in my head and I couldn’t stop. In this song, Rodrigo talks about her struggles trying to fit in. Whenever I first heard it, I thought it was going to be a slower song, because it has the word “ballad” in it, but I was pleasantly surprised with a fun song that I absolutely loved. This one also stood out to me because even though I don’t necessarily relate, I still found myself feeling like I could. However, one thing that I didn’t care for in the song was the bridge. I felt like it kind of brought down the mood and was somewhat out of place, but I still enjoy it nevertheless. 

Another song that I really enjoyed off the album was “bad idea right?” This song is about her justifying getting back together with her former partner, even though she knows it’s a bad idea. I love the background vocals in it. It gives it so much more depth and emotion. The chorus is also super catchy and funky which I adore. It’s another song that is more upbeat and it makes me want to have fun and be rebellious. In the beginning, I didn’t think I was going to like it, but when the chorus came on, I immediately took back everything I thought and decided that this was going to have to be one of my favorite songs. 

One last song that I couldn’t get enough of was “get him back!” Rodrigo made this song about her ex as well, except in this one she talks about wanting him back, but also wanting vengeance. One thing I loved was the repeating rhythm in the verses. It added a dramatic effect to the song and I just love how sassy the song is. During the bridge, the vocal layers also sounded super cool to me. And once again, this song was catchy, without being annoying. This song will definitely end up on my playlist and I would love to hear it again and again.