Olivia Rodrigo's Guts is critics' favorite album of 2023

By Mark SavageBBC Music Correspondent

Olivia Rodrigo has broken the curse of the second album - with critics calling her messy, intimate coming-of-age record, Guts, the best new release of 2023.

< p class="ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10">Filled with punk-pop anthems and barbed ballads, the album topped a "poll of polls" compiled by BBC News .

Rodrigo told the BBC that it was a "happier" and "more playful" record than his debut album, Sour, with a more rock inspired by his upcoming tour.

"It's such a cathartic experience singing songs like that in a crowd."

< p class="ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10">Released in September, Guts topped the UK and US charts and was nominated for six Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year.

Rolling Stone magazine called it "another instant classic", while AllMusic called Rodrigo "an artist with a lot to say, and the confidence and eloquence necessary to say them in one's own way.

While her debut was largely written about a disastrous relationship, Guts finds her discussing fame, pain, questionable relationships, self-sabotage and stumbling into adulthood.