By: Cody Englander, Staff Writer

[Geffen Records; 2024]

Rating: 6/10

Key Tracks: “so american”, “obsessed”

On GUTS (spilled), Olivia Rodrigo releases five new songs for the deluxe version of her sophomore album. The songs add work to compliment what’s already been released, and to give fans a treat while she’s on tour.

The new songs, all added at the tail end, begin with the most fitting and angsty song, “obsessed”. It fits into the themes of jealousy and growing up, which she repeats throughout the album. It flows well as she finds herself spiraling about her obsession to a person’s ex, to the point of knowing everything about her. This louder and aggressive song is met with a sonically adjacent song to early 2010’s Taylor Swift. 

Read more: Album Review: Justin Timberlake – Everything I Thought It Was 

Rodrigo claims on repeat to be “The girl she has always been”. While the refrain is catchy, it doesn’t lend itself to the main ideas of the album, about her change as an artist and growing up.

Rodrigo follows this up with “scared of my guitar,” one of her slower and more emotionally driven songs. Looking at this new work as an EP instead of deluxe add-ons, it’s the emotional low-point, and avoids most of the angst (although it does sneak in). It’s some of her strongest vocal work on the whole project. 

“stranger” is an exercise in her songwriting. While it’s not a highlight of the album or even the deluxe, it shows growth as an artist. Willingness to grow is such a strong aspect of Rodrigo’s career so far, and playing her cards right, she’ll have multiple classics before the age of 30. 

The album ends on “so american”. This is perhaps one of her best songs. It perfectly embodies the spirit of the album. It shouldn’t close the album, but it’s so unashamed to be a love song and isn’t bad to leave the audience going out on a bang. 

Much like the original GUTS album, this one is satisfactory. Comparing the deluxe to SOUR it has highs and lows. Restructuring the album so the new songs would be incorporated throughout would help the album flow better. The ending of “Guts” originally has “teenage dream”, which fits much better as it cohesively finishes Rodrigo’s personal development throughout the album. This is evident with one of the last lines being “it gets better the more you grow”. This is an effective way to cap off the entirety of this work, but there is instead another 16 minutes of music. 

None of the songs are bad or lazy enough to be considered throw-aways, but aside from fans of this style or Rodrigo’s music, there isn’t too much reason to give this a listen, although the hits stick with you. 

Listen here: