Youth is back! And not in the creepy-yet-touching-but-slightly-concerning-way Troye Sivan was singing about in 2015. Everyone is living for nostalgia: Y2K fashion, CDs and cassette tapes, and the return of ultra-eviable pop girl archetype. The media, mostly Twitter, has been waiting for the return of this pop girl stereotype. In the early 2010s we had Gaga, Rihanna, Kesha, and Katy Perry. 

Though these icons are still relevant, pop-lovers are on the edge of their seats waiting for the next big thing. Olivia Rodrigo is the pop girl everyone’s been waiting for. Enamored since her time at  Disney and hit debut single “Driver’s License,” the internet has been obsessed with her radiating beauty and cutting-edge pop sound. Her sophomore album “Guts” is here to cement her legacy. 

Much like every Gen Zer, Rodrigo strives to revive the signature grungy sound and aesthetics of the 90s. On “GUTS,” she references and pays tribute to an era when music was uniquely edgy and cool, when it was individualistic even though everyone was doing it. The opening track “All-American Bitch” takes on female rage in a way familiar to anyone who knows Courtney Love: “I’m sexy and I’m kind/I’m pretty when I cry.” Similarly to “Brutal,” the opening track from Rodrigo’s debut album “SOUR,” she lets the listener in on her displeasures about the world and the brutality of fame. “All-American Bitch” depicts barbie-esque perfection that Rodrigo doesn’t connect to but understands is expected of her. 

Rodrigo’s version of rock takes it back to beanies and flannels and when the world was painfully honest. The track “ballad of a homeschooled girl” is meant to be kitschy: “thought your mom was your wife (Ah)/Called you the wrong name twice (Ah)/Can’t think of a third line”. The garage rock track allows for vulnerability in the most relatable way. Social anxiety is awkward – Olivia makes it seem cool. With raw, discordant vocals and heavy guitar, Rodrigo might be the first artist excited to have their fans screaming “social suicide” as loud as possible.

The second single off the album, “bad idea right,” starts with a simple scene: a door opening and a soft yet relieved “hey.” The spoken/sung verses tell a story many know well – going back to an ex for a night that you know will end in regret. The instant classic is anthemic, world shaping, and all too relatable. You get lost in the world of the song as Rodrigo contemplates what bed she should end up in tonight.

What man could she be speaking about? Many allege “bad idea right?” is about Joshua Basset due to some heavy clues within the music video. “get him back!”, another boy inspired song on the album, is speculated to be about Adam Faze. Though media coverage of their relationship depicted it as rocky “get him back!” tells a more nuanced story: “I wanna get him back/I wanna make him really jealous, wanna make him feel bad”. Though the tortuous relationship ended up in less amicable ways, Rodrigo discovers the golden rule in this song; Her sadist persona wants him back just to teach him the best lesson of all.

The deeply soft “lacy” creeps up after three rock anthems. The delicately styled, fingerpicked guitar creates a dreamscape for this very conceptual, but very real, track. Hypnotized, she has to decide if she wants her or wants to be her, a sentiment that illustrates the bittersweet feeling of admiring someone just as much as you loathe them.The sweet track offers another honest revelation of Rodrigo’s life, one that not all fans knew.

Out of her most vulnerable and contemplative headspace comes Rodrigo’s “making the bed”, a more somber song compared to the rest of the project – but just as honest as the rest. In a soul-crushingly slow tempo, she reveals her disillusions with stardom: “and I’m playin’ the victim so well in my head/But it’s me who’s been makin’ the bed.” Rodrigo writes about coming to terms with the not-so-shiny aspects of stardom, something every popstar before her has had to navigate, as well. Perhaps she took her own pop girl fantasy too far. Perhaps a legacy this big is too much for a 20-year-old girl to hold all on her own. 

“Teenage dream”, the album’s final track, leaves off on Rodrigo’s 19th birthday. The song is a tribute to the fears of entering your 20’s – fears of being lost but never finding your way. “They all say that it gets better/It gets better, but what if I don’t,” she wails, knowing crowds of her enamored fans will wail back. Much like the music of pop predecessors Adele and Lorde have always done so well, this catalog of songs will forever invoke the feelings of an age we’ll all forever know too well.