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After releasing four of the five songs that now appear on the Guts (Spilled) edition of Guts by way of hidden tracks on different versions of the album, Olivia Rodrigo has at last made those songs easily available to all—and she’s even thrown in an extra one for good measure (“so american”). Of course, it probably makes the people who bothered to collect all four editions of Guts in order to hear each hidden track feel a little bit used, but such is the nature of capitalism (just ask Taylor Swift, whose many versions of albums featuring different cover art or songs would be enough to drive any fan mad).
While Guts, overall, sounds like what can best be described as Sour: Part Deux, the additions of these particular tracks lend a less sophomoric feel to the record, even if many of them are still rooted in the same old “Olivia problems”—which is to say, she’s been deeply affected and/or hurt by a boy (or “man-child,” as Lana Del Rey would say). Except that, in the case of the first song that kicks off the round of bonus tracks, she’s been deeply affected/hurt by a boy’s ex. Obsessing over her endlessly and all the ways in which she’s probably superior. Hence, the song title: “obsessed” (which, it bears repeating, Mariah Carey has a monopoly on as much as she does Christmas).
The shorter (two minutes and one second) “girl i’ve always been” seems a continuation, in its way, of “obsessed” in that it finds Rodrigo insisting that she’s always been this way: obsessive, maniacal, “too much,” etc. And yet, the boy in question would dare to tell her, “Baby doll, you have changed.” To which Rodrigo replies, “I’m nothin’ if I’m not consistent/You knew everything you were gettin’.” The folksy meets alt-rock musical tone channels, in certain respects, a tincture of Kesha on Rainbow (e.g., “Hunt You Down,” “Godzilla” and Spaceship”) and Lana Del Rey in her post-Honeymoon era. Indeed, Del Rey is often channeled lyrically by Rodrigo within these bonus tracks. For example, the way she says, “I get down with crooked men” recalls the manner in which Del Rey declares, “I get down to beat poetry” on “Brooklyn Baby.” And then, as though to prove the adage that everything is a copy of a copy, Rodrigo wields the phrase, “I am a candle in the wind.” Although originally a phrase immortalized by Elton John, Del Rey recently took to adopting it on “Mariners Apartment Complex” (“I ain’t no candle in the wind”) and “Yosemite” (“No more candle in the wind/Not like before when I was burning at both ends”). Elsewhere, Rodrigo shrugs, “I can say I’m a perfect ten/But I am the girl I’ve always been,” which seems like a loose riff on the “She a ten, but…” meme.
A more “esoteric” (to those too daft to know) reference that Rodrigo is channeling on this song (unwittingly or not) is Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians’ “What I Am.” Her higher-pitched tone and sarcastic snarkiness easily harken back to this classic “alternative” hit from 1988. But, ultimately, Rodrigo must return to her go-to for emulations, Taylor Swift. At least with a song title such as “scared of my guitar,” which sounds a lot like the Swift title, “Teardrops on My Guitar.” And yes, there are certain thematic similarities in that Rodrigo discusses how the only “person” she can be completely honest with about her feelings is her guitar. And the reason she’s scared of it is because she doesn’t want to talk herself out of the idea that she’s “really happy” with the dude who treats her like shit (thus, “Perfect, easy, so good to me/So why’s there a pit in my gut in the shape of you?”). The slow, stripped down track is in keeping with other “whiny bitch” anthems Rodrigo has become known for (e.g., “traitor” and, more recently, “logical”) and perhaps one-ups Swift’s “Teardrops on My Guitar” on that front (and on the front where it’s not a country song).
Explaining why she’s so scared of her guitar, Rodrigo sings, “‘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.” And to herself, for that matter. As for Swift, she pronounces,“‘Cause he’s the reason for the teardrops on my guitar/The only one who’s got enough of me to break my heart.” Each singer-songwriter turning to her only true confidant—the guitar—when things get messy in matters of romance. What’s more, both tracks build on a rare genre in music: women talking about their guitars. The only other singer to do that with notable panache was Amy Winehouse on “Cherry.”
The following song, “stranger,” also has some Swiftian parallels, lyrically speaking (though certainly not with its “ramblin’ man” musical sound). Namely, a parallel to “I Forgot That You Existed.” Granted, Rodrigo isn’t quite as cold in this song (not the way Swift is with her chirpy announcement, “I forgot that you existed/And it isn’t hate, it isn’t love/It’s just indifference”). For instance, she admits, “God knows that I am the girl I am because of you,” which feels like a biting homage to “girl i’ve always been.” Rodrigo even goes full-tilt Del Rey yet again with the lyric, “I’ll love you till the end of time” (someone’s been listening to “Blue Jeans”). And then, for the coup de grâce, “You’re just a stranger I know everything about” channels Gotye’s lyrics, “Now you’re just somebody that I used to know.” But sometimes, that can be for the best. For, like Billie Eilish on “Happier Than Ever” or Angela Chase (Claire Danes) saying she woke up one morning feeling like Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto) had been surgically removed from her heart, Rodrigo describes, “I woke up this morning and I sat up straight in bed/I had the strangest feeling of this weight off of my chest/I hadn’t felt that hopeful since the day that you left.”
Rodrigo also seems hopeful on the final addition to Guts (making it Guts [Spilled]), “so american.” Not only continuing the motif of “all-american bitch” (both songs now functioning as “american”-related bookends to the record), Rodrigo opts for Springsteen’s sonic vibe again (the same way she does on “love is embarrassing”). And why shouldn’t she when she wants to give off the aura of being “so american”?
Here, too, though, she’s serving up major Swift comparisons in that she’s also fallen for a British “man” (Louis Partridge, who’s about to come up in the world by appearing in the Alfonso Cuarón series, Disclaimer). One who Rodrigo makes mention of marrying when she sings, “Oh God, it’s just not fair of him/To make me feel this much/I’d go anywhere he goes/And he says I’m so American/Oh God, I’m gonna marry him.” That mention of “I’d go anywhere he goes” also coming across like Ariana Grande on Eternal Sunshine’s “imperfect for you” when she says, “Now I just can’t go where you don’t go.”
It’s all a lot of pressure to put on a bloke, British or otherwise (“otherwise,” in this case, being a Munchkin). Something Swift herself must know about after writing “Paper Rings” and “London Boy.” Having clearly had her own fill (sexual innuendo intended) of Brits, Swift’s fine with being “so american” if one of her upcoming songs, “So Long, London,” is an indication. All the more reason for Rodrigo to say hello to it then.
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Genna Rivieccio
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