Olivia Rodrigo has released her highly anticipated 12-track sophomore album GUTS today (Friday, Sept. 8). The LP is the follow-up to her 4x Platinum 2021 debut SOUR.
All of the tracks on the standard edition of the LP — there’s also a deluxe version with four additional songs — were produced by, or co-produced with, Nigro, who collaborated with her on SOUR. She also wrote the 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. The four additional tracks on GUTS (Deluxe Edition) are titled “Obsessed,” “Scared of My Guitar,” “Stranger” and “Girl I’ve Always Been.”
Following the album’s release, the 3x Grammy Award-winning 20-year-old took to social media to express gratitude regarding the support of her fans and the team she works with in helping her come so far in her career.
Rodrigo wrote in a journal entry shared online for fans to read: “I feel so many feelings. I feel excited, nervous, proud, but mostly I feel so grateful. I feel grateful for everyone on my team who believes in me and supports me so unwaveringly.
“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 sooo kind. I owe so much to you guys and I really hope you gid these new songs.(sic)”
The “vampire” singer recently revealed that she’d come up with the title for GUTS “a few years ago”. She told Hits Radio: “I am so excited that GUTS is coming out so soon. I came up with the name a few years ago, in fact before Sour even came out, I just really liked the word, the way it looks written down. I like the way it sounds, I like how it has so many meanings.
“I hope people scream it and dance to it and I hope it helps them understand and process their feelings in some way, that’s certainly what it was for me.”
Rodrigo also revealed stories she sees on TikTok have inspired some of her songs. She said:“I wrote “traitor” in my bedroom when I was very sad one day, and I actually came up with the idea for a song when I was looking at a TikTok. I saw a girl who was kind of going through a similar situation to what I was going through, and she was kind of feeling these same feelings that I had been going through for a while. For some reason watching her talk about how she felt about it gave me some clarity on how I felt. Super random but TikTok can sometimes be very productive – you heard it here first!”
About GUTS, Olivia previously revealed: “For me, this album is about growing pains and trying to figure out who I am at this point in my life … I feel like I grew 10 years between the ages of 18 and 20 – it was such an intense period of awkwardness and change.
“I think that’s all just a natural part of growth, and hopefully the album reflects that.”
GUTS Tracklist:
- “All American Bitch”
- “Bad Idea Right?”
- “Vampire”
- “Lacy”
- “Ballad of a Homeschool Girl”
- “Making the Bed”
- “Logical”
- “Get Him Back”
- “Love Is Embarrassing”
- The Grudge”
- “Pretty Isn’t Pretty”
- “Teenage Dream”
