c/o Geffen Records
She’s back and gutsier than ever: Olivia Rodrigo has returned to her sophomore album with four new songs to create the deluxe edition of GUTS, titled GUTS (spilled). Released on March 22, 2024, the album features the original twelve songs from GUTS’ initial release in 2023 alongside five new songs.
GUTS (spilled) was announced mid-concert during the GUTS World Tour at the United Center of Chicago on Tuesday, March 19. In between the chorus and second verse of “get him back!” Rodrigo and her backup dancers held up signs that read: “GUTS DELUXE OUT FRIDAY” and revealed the titles of the five new tracks.
Those tracks are: “obsessed,” “girl i’ve always been,” “scared of my guitar,” “stranger,” and “so american.” The first four of these tracks were originally released as secret songs on the vinyl editions of GUTS. “so american,” on the other hand, is a brand new—and completely unheard—track.
To get the obvious out of the way: I’m obsessed with “obsessed.” It’s the only new song I’d heard before GUTS (spilled) was released. I must have listened to that bootleg podcast version on Spotify over a hundred times before it was finally released on the platform. If “vampire” was GUTS’ lead single, then “obsessed” is GUTS (spilled)s’. The pop-punk bop fits in perfectly with the rest of the tracks in GUTS’ main body, with an insane guitar line to match the insane lyrics. “obsessed” revolves around Rodrigo’s obsession with her boyfriend’s exes, but more than that, the song reveals characteristic depth; Rodrigo’s obsessions all circle back to her own insecurities. The production is turned up to an eleven, showcasing the reverberating vocals and the rock star style Rodrigo is known for.
The bridge between the second and final choruses is particularly chilling. The production elements drop out, leaving Rodrigo with a more bare-bones accompaniment as she sings about all the details she wants to know about her boyfriend’s ex, whether it hurts her or not.
The second deluxe track, “girl i’ve always been,” is a complete one-eighty from “obsessed.” For starters, it’s not even in the same genre. While “obsessed” stays in line with the pop rock songs that populate much of GUTS, “girl i’ve always been” is country all the way through, from the hooting and hollering you can hear in the background, to the sparse production and acoustic guitar. If her BBC One cover of Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season” wasn’t enough, “girl i’ve always been” is proof that Olivia Rodrigo needs to make a country album, and soon. Beyoncé’s doing it, why not her? But while the genre might be new to her, the contents certainly are not. Rodrigo treads familiar ground, recounting a breakup between her and a past boyfriend. But rather than heartbreak, it seems “girl i’ve always been” is leaning more towards righteous indignation.
“So don’t say that I’ve been actin’ different / I’m nothin’ if I’m not consistent / You knew everything you’d be gettin’ / I told you right from the beginnin’,” Rodrigo sings to her ex in the song.
I wouldn’t call myself a country girl by any means, but if all country sounded like this, you could call me a reluctant convert.
“scared of my guitar,” and “stranger,” the third and fourth new tracks on GUTS (spilled), are a return to form for Rodrigo: ballads, in the truest sense. “scared of my guitar” in particular fits in sonically with Rodrigo’s debut album, SOUR (2021), or even the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series soundtrack. Fans speculate that “scared of my guitar” may have been written during SOUR, which would make sense as the song misses the maturity in both content and sound present in GUTS. That makes it, in my opinion, the weakest of the GUTS (spilled) tracks. Still, “scared of my guitar” is a nice inclusion to the tracklist, moving at a slower pace than the rest.
If “scared of my guitar” feels like it came straight off of SOUR’s tracklist, then “stranger” feels like a response to SOUR. This is in line with “teenage dream,” the song that originally ended GUTS. Lyrics in “stranger” seem to call back to lines in various songs off of SOUR, like “enough for you” and “favorite crime.” It makes sense: “stranger” is about Rodrigo figuring out how to be whole by herself, without her partner. Both “enough for you” and “favorite crime” are about how Rodrigo either felt not enough for her partner, or like she had to change to be with her partner. In contrast, “stranger” rejects the idea of changing yourself for your partner.
“’Cause I was half myself without you and now I feel so complete / And I can’t even remember what made me lose all that sleep,” Rodrigo sings.
The final song on GUTS (spilled) is Rodrigo’s newest: another upbeat pop track, titled “so american.” It’s also her first-ever love song, as Rodrigo giddily sings about wanting to marry her current boyfriend—actor Louis Partridge, best known for his role as Tewkesbury in Netflix originals “Enola Holmes” (2020) and “Enola Holmes 2” (2022)—while recounting their time together. It’s the kind of song you blast, windows down, while speeding down the interstate. However, unlike Rodrigo’s other tracks, “so american” pulls from a decidedly eighties sensibility. The zingy electric bass and guitar combine with choral background synths that evoke strangely-patterned arcade carpets and neon lights outside of bowling alleys. Rodrigo is in love, and it’s never sounded so good.
With all that said, let’s talk rankings:
My favorite track: There’s never been a tighter race, which is saying something, since GUTS (spilled) only has five new tracks. But, “obsessed” is an insanely replayable song. There is something darkly intoxicating about the way Rodrigo alternates between crooning and screaming into the mic. The accompaniment isn’t afraid to follow her, with the dynamics working so well as the song progresses. I’ve been watching performances of this song since the GUTS World Tour started, and I would pay the 500 dollar ticket fee just to see her perform “obsessed” live.
My least favorite track: “scared of my guitar.” It feels tired in a way I can’t quite explain. There are few Olivia Rodrigo tracks I would call an instant skip, and “scared of my guitar” is one of them. While SOUR was an insanely strong debut album, I think that “scared of my guitar” has a lot of the worst elements of the album. It feels young in a way that no longer fits with Rodrigo’s style, and even more, it feels repetitive in an incredibly uninteresting way.
Nicole Lee can be reached at nlee@wesleyan.edu.