Olivia released her third studio album to much critical acclaim, similar to her second album. However since release, Sad girl in Love has maintained a substantial lead on streaming, and overall commercial and public conversation than GUTS did. Despite having vampire, all 3 Sad Girl in Love songs are showing better longevity than anything from GUTS. GUTS also had the advantage of coming after SOUR. GUTS was an amazing album, But why has this album been so much bigger?

Unironically, the same happened with Billie, with HMHAS being much more successful than HTE. I think in both cases the second album cemented their status in a way that the third album felt way more like an event in music.

I guess it's going to happen to Sabrina too, she's going to have a bigger era than Man's Best Friend.

Edited September 6Sep 6 by TrueBlood

Guts had a bit of a Sour 2.0 feeling, this feels distinct both in the music and marketing. Plus, the age-old big celebrity breakup factor.

'GUTS' is a great record and sometimes I feel it's better than 'SOUR', like 50/50.

Now, commercially it was obvious that the album was going to be not bigger than 'SOUR', it's really hard to top a big level of smash like that but it did very well like over 10 million units in 3 years is very good, some singles were not really big but at the same time it's okay, she is more an album artist.

Now back to 2026 her last album is totally different to other two records and it was pretty obvious it was going to have a big impact like she is at her best moment!

So, Olivia gave us probably one of the best Pop albums of the decade (once again).

Edited September 6Sep 6 by gwen stacy

GUTS is a phenomenal record but music aside. I think it also has something to do that Olivia have grown so much like so does her fanbase. She's more secure, confident about herself and the kind of music / vision she wants to put out. People are able to get to know more about her as her own artist and not like a daughter or second coming / 2.0 of someone else. I guess that correlates to the success of the album somehow.

Vampire was a bigger lead compared to Drop Dead

But The Cure & Stupid Song are bigger compared to BIR? & GHB

Current era is bigger because all 3 singles are very stable for months & in my opnion album is better compared to Guts

Big debut --> public exhausted and finding reasons to nitpick with the second album ---> tour + live performances give artist lots of momentum again and reminds people why they were so loved in the first place ----> next album smashes.

This happend with Billie as well.

An album with songs like drop dead and the cure and stupid song and honeybee and maggots for brains and expectations and less has no choice but to be a massive smash

Better music

vampire was such a slop boring ballad that everyone was done with her after this

drop dead was a fun fresh vibe and so were the other singles so the album was a hit

its simple

despite GUTS being her best album imo (though YSPSFAGSIL is very, very close behind), she released it right as the pop rock revival was dying down.

the sound of YSPSFAGSIL is much closer to what a lot of her (female) audience wants

It's definitely the narrative and PR around the album more than anything else. GUTS is much better imo

she had more time to cook and build anticipation with YSPSFAGSIL and not doing a four letter word/purple background helped as well

Branding for the second album made it feel like an album extended edition of Sour.

4 minutes ago, vuelve88 said:

Branding for the second album made it feel like an album extended edition of Sour.

Sadly, this.

i loved sour, as everybody else in the world did

when she released guts i found myself not very interested. i really liked vampire but the album as a whole didn't seem quite..distinctive? it felt much like a continuation of sour

on the other hand, yspsfagsil is such a breath of fresh air. a new sound that fits her so much. i adore it and i def became a stan

Promo and roll out.

20 minutes ago, vuelve88 said:

Branding for the second album made it feel like an album extended edition of Sour.

Yeah. GUTS lacked a distinctive identity, which is what the album truly needed to stand out from Sour!