Olivia Rodrigo’s new album Guts begins with a killer opener: a track called “All-American Bitch.” The song is as punchy as the title suggests, though you wouldn’t be able to tell from the first few notes.
Rodrigo begins by sweetly serenading over gentle guitar strumming, describing an image of perfection: “I am light as a feather and as stiff as a board / I pay attention to things that most people ignore.” But when the drums hit in the chorus, almost like a tantrum, the guitars start shredding and Rodrigo brings on the angst: “I forgive and I forget / I know my age and I act like it.”
She does this throughout the song, playing nice in the verses and raging in the choruses, each time rebelling against the impossible expectations to which women and girls are held. (It’s not too far off from that Barbie monologue.) “I got class and integrity just like a goddamn Kennedy, I swear,” she says, tongue-in-cheek, in the second verse. “I’m sexy and I’m kind, I’m pretty when I cry,” she repeats as the song closes.
She also makes sure to mention how women are expected to suppress their anger, lest they be labeled as too emotional. “I don’t get angry when I’m pissed, I’m the eternal optimist / I scream inside to deal with it, like, ‘Ah,’” she sings in the bridge. All the while, the melody swings from sweet to sour (pardon the pun), angelic to chaotic. At times, Rodrigo’s vocals even sound Alanis and Avril-inspired.
“I really love the song ‘All American Bitch,’” Rodrigo said in a new interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. “It’s one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written. I really love the lyrics of it and I think it expresses something that I’ve been trying to express since I was 15 years old, this repressed pressed anger and feeling of confusion or trying to be put into a box as a girl. So yeah, I think that that’s one of my favorite songs on the record.”
She also said of the themes of the album as a whole: “In hindsight, I think that a lot of this album is about the confusion that comes with becoming a young adult and figuring out your place in this world and figuring out who you want to be and who you want to hang out with and all of that stuff. I think that that’s probably an experience that everyone has had in their life before, is just that rising from that disillusionment.”
Read the full lyrics below, courtesy of Genius.
[Verse 1]
I am light as a feather and as stiff as a board
I pay attention to things that most people ignore
And I’m alright with the movies that make jokes ’bout senseless cruelty
That’s for sure
And I am built like a mother and a total machine
I feel for your every little issue, I know just what you mean
And I make light of the darkness
I’ve got sun in my motherfuckin’ pocket
Best believe, yeah, you know me[Chorus]
I forgive and I forget
I know my age and I act like it
Got what you can’t resist
I’m a perfect all-American[Verse 2]
I am light as a feather, I’m as fresh as the air
Coca-Cola bottles that I only use to curl my hair
I got class and integrity just like a goddamn Kennedy, I swear
With love to spare[Chorus]
Forgive and I forget
I know my age and I act like it
Got what you can’t resist
I’m a perfect all-American bitch[Bridge]
With perfect all-American lips
And perfect all-American hips
I know my place, I know my place and this is it
I don’t get angry when I’m pissed, I’m the eternal optimist
I scream inside to deal with it, like, “Ah”
Like, “Ah” (Let’s fucking go)[Outro]
All the time, I’m grateful all the time
I’m sexy and I’m kind, I’m pretty when I cry
Oh, all the time, I’m grateful all the time (All the fucking time)
I’m sexy and I’m kind, I’m pretty when I cry
Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There is a 75 percent chance she’s listening to Lorde right now.