When GUTS was first released in 2023, I remember thinking, “This is the album of the year.”  I hadn’t heard anything so lyrically tight in a long time, and I loved the cross-genre appeal of the entire record. So when the GRAMMY nominations came out and Olivia Rodrigo snagged a bunch, including one for Album of the Year, I figured she’d be taking home multiple trophies once the ceremony rolled around.

We now know she took home none. On the night of the GRAMMYs ceremony, Rodrigo performed her mega-hit “vampire” – a genius demonstration of her confessional songwriting style as well as an illustration of her peerless vocal range – probably a little shaken up by winning nothing thus far, while Taylor Swift (winner of AOTY later that night) sang along in the first few rows.

And I’ve been reflecting on why Rodrigo’s outstanding, critically acclaimed, fan-favorite album was so sorely snubbed.

Something I’ve realized is that GUTS – which spans sounds ranging from opera through punk rock, pop, and guitar ballads – won’t fit in to whatever narrow criteria the supposed premier authority on music excellence uses. And it doesn’t matter, actually, since what Rodrigo created with GUTS – and now, somehow improved with the GUTS (spilled) release – is a masterpiece. Few artists are able to create an album that’s so thoroughly excellent throughout every song, with each expertly wrought turn of phrase, across the span of their careers. Never mind when they’re only 20.

I sincerely thank Rodrigo for giving me an opportunity to take a closer look at GUTS with her latest release (as I clearly missed an opportunity last year). For the record, I am here for this trend of artists giving us what landed on the editing room floor. As I hear more of these deluxe/updated/unreleased tracks albums, I realize that, for the artist, these songs were always part of the entire album experience. Somewhere along the way, they were cut and quickly forgotten once promotional tours and Instagram posts and late-night talk show appearances came around. But I find hearing Rodrigo’s unreleased songs clarifies the original, always-there intent of the album.

OG GUTS Tracks

Across the OG GUTS tracks, Rodrigo’s songwriting is taut, introspective, unflinching. In my view, GUTS is actually a memoir set to rhyme and melody. It paints the portrait of a person who has conducted deep self-reflection, as well as a skilled writer who can make such experiences sticky with their audience while imparting life learnings.

Like so many great memoirists, Rodrigo is the protagonist of every song and grounds us in present tense as she chronicles her experiences, which are often mistakes she’s made. This approach brings the listener in to the moment with her, and given that her experiences are part and parcel for our shared human experience, her listeners instantly feel connected to her, as they see themselves in the world she articulates in plainspoken lyrics. Her writing skill is most impressive when she simultaneously shows her broken, bruised reality and seamlessly imparts the lesson she’s learned, often a turn of phrase or two later. For many artists, this way in which she forges a strong connection with her audience is considered the core aim of songwriting – or really, any writing.

In my experience, some memoir writers can be skilled at cataloguing their experiences – harmful or beneficial, whatever they are – but there’s no there there. (Conveniently, New York magazine published this objectively terrible essay to illustrate the very point I’m making here.) This could be because the writer may not have enough perspective on their situation to be able to frame it in a way that offers any takeaway to the reader other than, “Wow sucks for you.” When the experience is not yet ripe, it’s not ready to be picked. (Follow me for more writing tips.)

Yet Rodrigo expertly harnesses her experiences, shines a harsh spotlight on what she may regard as her worst behavior thus creating a kind of looking-glass mirror, and demonstrates perspective as she brings us along her journey, all in the span of approximately three minutes per song. Let’s recall that Rodrigo is just now old enough to legally purchase alcohol. Such wisdom often takes years to earn, and for some may never come at all. (Spend a minute thinking about the adults you know.)

The center of the album, which directly addresses the work she’s done to reflect on her life choices and serves as the axis for all other songs to revolve around, is “making the bed” – a smart metaphor for coming to terms with your life and choices, and determining whether it’s what you want (or need); then putting in the work to course correct as needed. In this song, as well as others, the listener is simultaneously in the trenches with Rodrigo, ranging from a lover’s gaslighting behavior through the regretful end of a once-hopeful friendship, while also gaining an understanding of what those very experiences mean to the songwriter and perhaps in the listener’s own life as well.

Let’s look more closely at the skilled memoir writing on GUTS through one example. Rodrigo takes on the persisting rot of unattainable beauty standards in “pretty isn’t pretty,” an uptempo pop song.

I’ve excerpted below the chorus, which puts her effective songwriting ability on full display:

When pretty isn’t pretty enough, what do you do?

And everybody’s keepin’ it up, so you think it’s you

I could change up my body and change up my face

I could try every lipstick in every shade

But I’d always feel the same

‘Cause pretty isn’t pretty enough anyway

From the first line of the chorus, she invites the listener in to a topic as timeless as the story of Adam and Eve. It’s a question nearly every American woman has pondered at least once in their life, demonstrating Rodrigo’s knack for tapping in to universally held experiences. What I find really interesting about her delivery of this topic is she’s written lyrics about her own self-confidence about her appearance, so her telling of this story is particularly meaningful because, even she, as one of the most beautiful people in the world, is affected by unrealistic beauty myths. In the next line, she portrays how systemic the issue is. As someone who has spent considerable time thinking and reading about gender, I find this take to be staggering and evolved, and I can’t think of another song that connects the dots so seamlessly. She ends that line by pointing out what so many people feel: I am the outlier. I am not pretty enough. The problem must be me.

But then she takes us through her well-earned wisdom by putting herself at the center of the story. She tells us the things she has done – “change up my body and change up my face” – and even conveys how ridiculous these pursuits are by saying “I could try every lipstick in every shade.” Although she – and so many of her listeners – take painstaking efforts to supersede the system, the results often have no bearing on how they feel about themselves.

The kicker is the final line: “’Cause pretty isn’t pretty enough anyway.” This is the money shot and demonstrates just how wise she is. She started the chorus by bringing the listener to ground zero of her experience that is inescapable for all of us and leaves the listener with an astute takeaway: It’s all a sham.

GUTS (spilled) Tracks

I may be on to something about her position as a memoirist, given how she chose to update the title of her outstanding core album. As covered, her deft ability to communicate relatable experiences and convey her evolved perspective is much more than this (pejorative?) meaning that “spilling my guts” implies.

Upon hearing these five new songs, I came upon a revelation that this is not a pop album at all, and it was never intended to be. She bends the idea of genre through the sonic variety throughout the OG tracks, which extends in to the new ones. Take the last song “so american,” whose opening frenetic guitar pulses, like a flickering flame in the wind, sound like they’re straight out of any Sleater-Kinney album.

While it’s challenging to pick my favorite of these new songs (since I love them all), I’ll cover observations about a few.

Wisely, she pushed out a new music video for “Obsessed,” the first of the new songs, to coincide with the release of GUTS (spilled). This song shows her hallmark approach to songwriting – unflinching, hard-to-witness vignettes, showing the very worst impulses one can possibly have (and ones many people may see in themselves) – on steroids. Although she’s in a relationship that may be relatively stable (“And I know that you love me”), she’s preoccupied with her partner’s ex-girlfriend, citing hilarious details such as, “’Cause I know her star sign, I know her blood type.” The very act of writing a litany of cringeworthy behaviors serves as a mirror for her – as well as her listeners. Of course, her excessive use of hyperbole does shine a light on the question: Is it her or is the guy the problem?

The other song I’ll cover is “scared of my guitar,” which may speak most directly to her relationship with songwriting than any other song we’ve heard from her. Here she shows us a relatable experience for some: being with a partner that’s not quite right for you but it is preferred to being alone. Every time I hear this song, I marvel at the expert writing, as well as how talented her vocals are. When we get to the chorus, she sings:

But I’m so scared of my guitar

‘Cause it cuts right through to the heart

Yeah, it knows me too well so I got no excuse

I can’t lie to it the same way that I lie to you

I’m struck by her wise perspective here. Consistently evident across her songs, she pulls us in to the moment with her, so we feel like we’re experiencing it together, yet she’s hovering above, observing the situation for what it is. In this song, she shows us that the experience of songwriting – where she’s her most authentic – stands in contrast to her behavior within her relationship. She knows what it sounds like – potentially problematic to some – but her act of articulating this experience in stark terms, one that may be relatable to many, is empowering to her and her listeners.

With GUTS (spilled), It’s evident that Rodrigo wants to reinforce that she can be supremely versatile through the sounds she wraps around her lyrics, and yet her core approach to songwriting remains consistent, confessional yet wise, and tight no matter the melody. I am thrilled we’re just at the beginning of her career, so we can learn from her as she helps us evolve together.