Olivia Rodrigo - Guts (Sept. 2023)

No cover art yet, but she revealed the tracklist in an IG Reel (accompanied by a very poppy-sounding song):

1. All American Bitch
2. Bad Idea Right?
3. Vampire
4. Lacy
5. Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl
6. Making the Bed
7. Logical
8. Get Him Back
9. Love Is Embarrassing
10. The Grudge
11. Pretty Isn't Pretty
12. Teenage Dream

Oh wait, of course there's cover art... duh:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/03/Olivia_Rodrigo_-_Guts.png

Vampire is a great start, looking very forward to this.

ILX pre-covers?

Nice of her to pen a tribute to Steve Lacy

This album is going to kick ass

I love Vampire, was not totally sold on the first album but v intrigued by this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj9qJsJTsjQ

Every note of the song is somehow a hook; it's pretty incredible

v cool song

I might have lost my mind, and it's probably not intentional, but I'm picking up a slight That Dog vibe here.

I don't know what region of my taste-profile lizard brain is being activated when Rodrigo & Nigro unleash these ruthless hybrids of shiny plastic alt-rock, post-Taylor songwriting, and ultra-hooky chart pop... don't know if it's even possible to untangle the specific musical precedents that are being used as stimulus... I can only marvel at how utterly effective the result is.

my 10-year-old, within 30 seconds of the song starting: "sounds like Brutal"

my 13-year-old, during the noisy guitar solo: "sounds like the music Dad likes"

this is incredible

i like the prechorus and the solo but the chant-iness of most of the song ends up pretty irritating. the verse and chorus are both just single-note-chanting over the same riff over and over and it makes me sick of it before the song's even half over

For me, it’s the opposite… each section and little vocal hook grips me tighter, as the song builds to a crescendo of this-is-so-awesome

That playful, insouciant little guitar figure conjures up some very specific precedent, but I cannot for the life of me place it.

I like this song and I’m going to go ahead and invoke Wet Leg even tho it will probably make everyone mad.

It’s funny/cute how each song strategically has one (1) swear word.

― Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (CBTL) stan (morrisp), Saturday, May 15, 2021 3:47 AM (two years ago)

She’s upped the number for album two!

I like Pitchfork’s track review… it focuses on the strength of Rodrigo’s performance (and “commitment to the bit”); and makes the point (in a sideways fashion) that while some may arch their eyebrows at an actress deciding to become a pop star, she’s working that skill set artistically.

In fact (to extend my thought in a way that may be tenuous): OR has almost nothing in common w/Ariana Grande as a vocalist, but I've always felt that one of Ariana's underappreciated virtues as a singer is her "expressiveness" – how she puts across the meaning & emotion of a lyric – in a way that may tie into her acting background (...or at least, it certainly can't hurt!). Also, Ariana has long struck me as sort of a "theater kid performing as a pop star," rather than a true-blue pop star by blood (like, say, Lady Gaga). This isn't a dis, btw, but just a dimension of the fandom... e.g., Ariana's live performances can have an (endearingly) corny element that feels tied to her theater background.

(of course, many pop stars try their hands at acting, and some may be good at it… but it’s a smaller set that started their careers that way.)

rodrigo feels even more theatre kid than grande

Love how they've re-worked the rhythm track of "Oh, Pretty Woman," as if the narrative's a quasi-sequel that takes place further down the road from the perspective of the woman.

So Olivia Rodrigo released a post-punk song with a skronky guitar solo/outro and I don't know what I am doing with my life anymore.

I'm getting Subbacultcha vibes from the new one

yes

When I first heard the song, its sonics made me flash on Room on Fire-era Strokes... it's those tight, compressy drums, and the "New Wave" tinge that the Pitchfork piece touches on. Also, the main riff kinda sounds like a half-time variation on "Juicebox" (from the next Strokes album).

my brain goes ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

getting be your own pet (but friendlier) vibes from this one

I'm so into these new songs, and so pleased with this artist right now... great feeling

this song is pretty cool... if you played this for someone who just woke up from a coma they fell into during the summer of 2010 & said it was a new single from one of the biggest pop acts in the world they would be like "wow sleigh bells have really blown up while also managing to streamline their sound towards accessibility"

i'm not sure i can explain this feeling like... logically, but i'm being kept at a distance from these tracks because i detect what i can only describe as a "look what you made me do" kinda energy coursing thru these songs. not in sound, obviously, but in spirit... a kinda frantic seriousness to the songwriting, moments of levity that feel too forced to actually work, the sense that a few too many ideas have been chewed up and spit in my face. it's confrontational pop but i'm not feeling the friction. personally. i get why people are excited about this stuff tho & i think she's getting closer to finding a voice & sound she can call her own. the music she'll make when she's like 25 will prob be pretty sick

I think that's a great assessment/description actually, though the approach somehow does totally "work" for me. It feels like an "earned" flex on their part...

It's interesting you mention "Look What You Made Me Do," because not only do I love that album, but that is the particular Taylor moment that the new song reminded me most of... the little spoken asides, etc.

it's got nothin' on Sky Ferreira a decade ago

What is this riff from? I swear I’ve heard it before. Fun song and j0rdan otm

xp Nigro worked with her too! Do you recommend particular songs? I checked some out in the past, but they didn’t really grab me…

getting be your own pet (but friendlier) vibes from this one

Be Your Own Pet are making friendlier stuff now too (album out next week)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWrI42WweF8

riff is a pretty old fashioned rock move, dating back to, like, "peggy sue." does remind me a little of the pre-chorus of "my best friend's girl" and the main riff from costello's "waiting for the end of the world"

there's some "stacy's mom" in the dna too, but that's basically a cars song, so

YES it’s “Waiting for the end of the world” I was thinking of. It is a ridiculously stock riff tho, about as patentable as salt is as an ingredient

lol I thought that was a Sky Ferreira song at first

“Stacy’s Mom” and that Costello song (neither of which I’m a big fan of) also generally have “Peggy Sue” in the vocals part of their DNA…

I checked out that 2013 Sky Fereirra album (again)... I dunno, the songs don't seem all that strong to me; her voice is somewhat characterless; and the fuzzy, keyboard-heavy production doesn't jibe w/my taste (tho that's subjective). "I Will" is a pretty good song (it's one of the ones Dan N. worked on).

if olivia recorded "i blame myself" in its exact form it would be the biggest song in the world

I still love that album, a big shock at the time

I like the clearer sound on "I Blame Myself," but it sounds like a demo to me, haha! I feel like it needs a big, maxed-out treatment...

it definitely doesn't

You know, another song that "Bad Idea Right?" sent me back to is Avril's "Girlfriend" – due to the chanting – and it reaffirmed my memory that it's an absolutely shitty song, just awful. The contrast couldn't be stronger...

I like "Bad Idea Right?" but it's not post-punk and it doesn't sound a thing like Sleigh Bells or Fountains of Wayne, come on now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OofRYPBwalI

Great performance (just the right amount of "theater kid" energy)!

This was so cute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mhKYBWnZGA

New soundtrack song (I wondered if it would have different songwriter(s), but nope, it's a Rodrigo/Nigro joint):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXjA-ahmi1A

I guess she’s also performing w/Sheryl Crow at the R&RHOF induction on Friday.

First artist in Grammy history to be up for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Rock Song in the same year?

funny that she is up against the Rolling Stones for the latter

These SNL performances that are also live real time music videos freak me out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1jB2CTYm4s

Stripped down "Vampire"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1_7JaHx_-A

Might as well throw this in too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRsBTw_1-iE

She seemed maybe a little nervous doing “Vampire”? Like she didn’t seem to quite hit the chorus right

Maybe because she was having to remember to censor herself?

Just noticed they changed the cover image for Tiny Ass Bag from Adam Driver to Rodrigo, Ego, and that other guy.

Wondering too what the reasoning was by cutting 'goddamn' out of "Vampire", but letting it stay in "AAB" (other than it's not as prominently spotlighted in the latter).

To rabbit-hole even further, the cc subtitle in “AAB” only said “damn”

Was Tiny Ass Bag of parody of something specific? Are those recurring characters, with their catchphrase? I didn’t get why Adam Driver was standing in a different space etc.

no to any of those questions. I think having him stand over there was to underline that he was just some dude named Kevin and not as big a fashonista as the other two. The blocking didn't really work. I still found that sketch really funny. I'm enjoying this season, cast is really strong.

I have decided I really don't get Olivia Rodrigo though.

It's a reoccurring trope to do these specific parodies of low-budget commercials for fashion shops or companies.

Here's one from a few years ago with J.Lo & Melissa Villasenor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQE-6XV3v3M

To build on what akm said, I think part of the joke is the implication Driver's character is a struggling actor they found on craigslist or a grip or somebody promoted to talent when the real actor didn't show up.

I have decided I really don't get Olivia Rodrigo though.

I don’t think last night’s performances were the best showcase of her talent… but it’s rare that I’ve ever been really happy with an SNL performance by a band or artist I’m into.

the sound mix on SNL live performances has been garbage for years

staging has gotten better though

She handled the “AAB” staging well (and sounded good doing it), but I don’t get why they opt to present a song that way (like it’s the VMAs).

They've been doing that 'Live Music Video' staging for a few years now. Not exactly sure when they started, but seems like it really locked in with this Billie Eilish performance in the season 45 premiere in 2019:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn1Uwsg3eRQ

I missed that Billie performance at the time, but I did catch this Camilla Cabello performance live a couple weeks later and was blown away, thinking "OK, the ante has been raised."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWLorxdRxRg-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmh3iruf4RA

She really sounded to me like she couldn’t really sing her material that well in the SNL performances, which is interesting because I remember being much more impressed with her previous SNL outing

she lisped a lot in 'vampire', is that normal? I didn't notice it in the other song. It was odd. maybe it was the sound mix.

or maybe i wasn't a lisp, it was 'sh' (I guess 'unvoiced frictive'?) on the sibilants

Having seen her perform live (at that thing recorded for YouTube, discussed above), I promise that SNL wasn't a great representation...

akm, I noticed that "sh" emphasis too!

My uncharitable take was that she sounded like Taylor Swift trying to impersonate Billie Eilish

She sounds much better (IMO) on that new Tiny Desk Concert which ivy linked to (watching it now!)

She shoulda performed "Vampire" like that on SNL (with the band around her), damn!

I thought AAB performance was fun and she sounded good. On Vampire she seemed maybe nervous and also maybe like she couldn't hear herself that well?

Seems like a compromise SNL throws at artists who get one of those performance set pieces is their other performance is a fairly stripped-down thing. At least that was the case with Rodrigo, and those Eilish & Cabello appearances I posted upthread. I imagine part of it is that (if they're not also hosting) the musical guest usually doesn't show up until Friday or maybe Thursday of the shoot week.

There's a bts video for Eilish that shows the huge amount of work that goes into pulling those things off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an76NRrV-zQ

AAB gets a pseudo-live vid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB0qc0-Bzgs

as opposed to the pseudo-vid live on snl

hope "ballad of a homeschooled girl" gets performed in this vevo series

Me too – that was terrific (the best I’ve heard “AAB” sound), and I look forward to more of these. The Vevo videos for the first album were great (particularly the “Favorite Crime” clip on the rooftop).

New one :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_ygEJu4SHs

"Vampire" w/strings on Colbert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f274tLL9SuI

^That should have been her SNL performance, IMO (notwithstanding her shift into odd enunciation at the end – “I yooshed to think I wazsh shmart…”).

Meanwhile, I’m obsessed with that Vevo “Get Him Back” clip… what a sound!

Vevo #3... this one sounds a lot like the album version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr_j3sT-bc8

...and looks like that's it for the Vevo clips (the longform video is below). I'm surprised they haven't unleashed "Homeschooled Girl" in any other context but the album (AFAIK). Maybe they're "saving" it for next year?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPmDv2obvjA

Those are enjoyable, the VEVO clips.

What is the purpose of these ... just to create more content, especially ahead of the Christmas buying season or something? Or is there some other reason to make these that I'm missing?

It's a cool idea if you have the budget, which she obviously does.

They did ’em for the last album too, I assume it’s just another avenue of promotion (or just a treat for the fans, I dunno if they “drive sales”)?

The four bonus tracks are finally on YT… this is an interesting one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LVGBBnEvg4

(^ it reminds me a little of those early Lizzie Grant demos…)

“Obsessed,” the upbeat track, is fairly mid (…and the lyrics include “b*tthurt,” a word I loathe). The other two songs are fine

the more i listen to these albums, the more convinced i am that she’s never been in love before. and that’s okay!

Guts Deluxe out Friday… new versions of the vinyl bonus tracks, plus a new song (“So American”).

The new song has a cool hook in the verse, but the chorus ain’t doing it for me.

I preferred the vinyl (“demo”?) version of “Girl I’ve Always Been.” Still really dislike “Obsessed.”