The fear for a casual Olivia Rodrigo fan like myself was that she was becoming the next Taylor Swift. Her sophomore album, Guts, put that fear to rest.

Before the Swifties get upset, becoming the next Taylor Swift isn't a bad thing. She is one of the biggest draws in the entertainment industry and her “Eras” tour will go down as the biggest ever. However, she has also gotten into a bit of a cold streak creatively, relying on redundant nostalgia (the “Taylor's Version” albums) instead of quality original music.

That leads us to the budding Rodrigo, whose first album, while a good debut album, fell into a trap of repeated motifs. At least she can admit it — Rodrigo has never been shy about talking about how heartbreak influenced Sour. She also admitted that finding inspiration for Guts was difficult since the Joshua Bassett heartbreak becomes more of a distant memory.

Now, Guts is not completely innocent of treading familiar waters — the occasional Joshua Bassett shade or “Driver's License”-like piano ballad is present on the album — but Rodrigo's sound and lyricism have grown exponentially over the past two years. She wanted to make a rock album, and while on Guts, Rodrigo's got more passion and grunge, and she's made one (giant) step forward, and no steps back.

Olivia Rodrigo's Guts review

Starting with a band, Rodrigo's Guts album opens with the song, “All-American B***h.” The song begins with a little upbeat guitar, “I am light as a feather, I'm as stiff as a board,” Rodrigo sings in the opening line. It then transitions to a chorus that harkens back to the late 90s, and early 2000s with the likes of Avril Lavigne, Green Day, and Blink-182 — a sound she channels a few times throughout Guts.

Neither of the two lead singles from Guts, “Bad Idea Right?” and “Vampire,” impressed me upon first listen. The former is far and away better, as the latter feels way too familiar to Sour. “Bad Idea Right?” is like the older version of “Brutal,” and is infectious the more you listen to it.

Rodrigo's maturity is put on full display in “Making the Bed,” by far Guts' most candid track. It's got a bit of that early Stranger in the Alpes Phoebe Bridgers sound, even veering a bit into Midnights-territory during the chorus. But in this song, Rodrigo admits to “playing the victim” in her own head. Even the titular line suggests that she's aware that she plays some part in the messes in her life. It takes a big person to admit something like that — no one likes taking the blame — but this is her “Scott Street” or “Smoke Signals.”

It's fair to question Rodrigo's ethos. After all, she was a teenager when she made Sour. When you're 17, the first heartbreak seems the hardest — as Léon sings on “In a Stranger's Arms,” heartbreak “hurts the worst the first time” — but you've yet to see the world. Even if Rodrigo wasn't a music superstar, she'd be, at most, going into college at the age of 17. That's why it made Sour somewhat to buy into as a 20+-year-old listening to it a couple of years ago. It's just so trivial.

Guts does take a more mature approach to its songs — and even this critic was proven wrong that a 20-year-old Rodrigo can take a broader approach to her music. “Making the Bed” was Rodrigo's way of exploring the “you've made your bed now lie in it” aphorism, and “Love is Embarrassing,” a song with verses laden with the rhythm of Billy Joel's “You May Be Right,” is her way of making fun of herself.

Her sound further evolves on “Pretty Isn't Pretty,” which resembles Phoebe Bridgers' work with Better Oblivion Community Center (specifically “Dylan Thomas”). But if you want something akin to the piano ballad that “Driver's License” was, Rodrigo's got “The Grudge” for you.

The only exhausting part of Rodrigo's sophomore album is the shade-throwing that occurs on Guts. “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl” seemingly shades Bassett, and many assume “Vampire” is about Swift. We won't likely ever know if Rodrigo is talking about Swift on “Vampire,” a song talking about someone who's a “fame f**ker” and a “bloodsucker,” but this type of petty nonsense is the place where Rodrigo's album falters at times. I understand in this age, subtle lyrics are generally the weapon of choice for singers in their drama, but it's also exhausting.

Similarly to Sour, Rodrigo closes out Guts with another ballad. “Teenage Dream” is Rodrigo singing into the mirror to herself, realizing she has many years ahead of her.

And that's the overarching theme of Guts when you step back and look at it. It's almost like Rodrigo's worried about peaking early — to be fair, it's hard to top the success of Sour — as she sings “I fear that they already got all the best parts of me.”  Rodrigo calmly reminds herself that she's only 19 (20 now) with many more years of experience, heartbreak, and success ahead.

Should you listen to Guts? 

While Olivia Rodrigo may have ripped off Taylor Swift songs like “New Year's Day” and “Cruel Summer” on Sour, she has clearly distinguished herself with Guts. Swift showed content with Midnights, her last album of original music, with every track resulting in you asking yourself: “Did I just hear this song?”

Guts, on the other hand, shows Rodrigo's willingness to adapt and change it up every song. There's no contentment from Rodrigo, and that should bode well as she gets deeper into her career.

Grade: B+

Guts is available now.