A few weeks ago, Olivia Rodrigo announced and released a deluxe version of her sophomore album GUTS, and the five extra songs couldn’t be anything less than extraordinary.
The album was released in September of 2023 with 12 unique tracks and was an instant fan favorite. With the spike in the popularity of vinyl records, Rodrigo and her team decided to add a bonus track to each vinyl version, with four possibilities.
If you were lucky enough to get a GUTS vinyl after the original 12 songs played, one of the bonus tracks would follow, and these tracks would not be available anywhere else besides the select vinyl.
When Rodrigo’s tour started, she performed one of these songs on the setlist. The song in question is “Obsessed,” the first added song on the deluxe version. She shocked the audience by performing this song, which begged the question of when she would officially release it to stream. After a few weeks of touring and lots of speculation, the announcement was made during a performance on March 19 that GUTS would come out the following Friday with five new tracks.
Since it came out, I have been obsessed with this album version and constantly listening to the bonus tracks. As usual with music in this day and age of technology, some of Rodrigo’s unreleased songs have been leaked on social media, with “Obsessed” being one of them.
“Obsessed” has to be one of my favorite bonus songs. It has a grunge and alternative sound compared to the other four, and there’s something so enticing about it. A song about being fixated on your significant other’s ex is nothing new in the world of music, but Rodrigo captures it uniquely. The opening lines of the song are “If I told you how much I think about her, You’d think I was in love, And if you knew how much I looked at her pictures, You would think we’re best friends” establishing just how much this mystery ex consumes her thoughts. She continues in the song to give examples of her obsession. She expertly captures the anxiety of being in a relationship and always wondering about your significant other’s partner’s past. My favorite line from this song is “I’m starin’ at her like I wanna get hurt” because Rodrigo knows this behavior and worrying is a bad idea, but she simply can’t help it. I also enjoy how she performs this song on stage on tour and uses multiple camera angles as she conducts the intense choreography. It is safe to say that I’m obsessed with “Obsessed.”
“Girl I’ve Always Been” takes the album on a quick shift to a more folk sound. It is a beautiful song about being you at the core no matter how you may have changed, and that is best shown in the lines “Say you don’t know me anymore . . . But I am the girl I’ve always been”. This is one of those songs that just makes you want to dance, and it has such a fun tune and feel that accompanies it. I think it portrays such a fun message about always being yourself and having the self-confidence of knowing the real you, along with how, in one way or another, you will always be the child you once were.
“Scared of My Guitar” is another excellent, well-written song with a very mellow sound. I love how Rodrigo touches on writing music and how much it makes her feel. The lines “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” is quite the gut-wrenching lyric about knowing the truth about a relationship deep down in your heart. I would say this is the song I listen to the least out of the bonus tracks, but that does not reflect the work of art it is. “Scared of My Guitar” is a reflective song, and I would argue it is one of the saddest of Rodrigo’s discography.
“Stranger” is another track that follows the folk vibe, and while it is shown less than Girl I’ve Always Been, it is still there. I love this song and how it takes on the scenario of dedicating yourself to someone and how that person becomes a stranger after you grow apart. “You’re just a stranger I know everything about” is a simple lyric, but at its core, it’s packed with a realization many are familiar with. “Stranger” is probably one of my favorite songs on this album.
“So American” is the last bonus track, and it was a shock to most as it wasn’t included in the original bonus tracks on the vinyl. It is also, most notably, the first love song in Rodrigo’s discography. “So American” is a fun and upbeat love song about Rodrigo’s current British boyfriend, Louis Partridge, an actor most known for his roles in the Enola Holmes films. The song covers the relationship between the two, the factor of her being American and him being British, and the quirks it leads to. It’s a classic love song about falling in love somewhat hard and fast with Rodrigo’s upbeat twist. This is my favorite of the bonus tracks, as it is just such a fun song that I love blasting at total volume.
I appreciate the creative reaches she took with each of the five tracks, which are unique while still being cohesive and fitting with the preestablished vibe of the album. “I love the twang in her voice and how it kind of resembles country music and how she is not afraid to explore different genres with her music,” Daisy Palmer said about “Girl I’ve Always Been.” The bonus tracks have greatly surprised Rodrigo’s fans, and they have quickly spiked in social media popularity.
