All of Olivia Rodrigo’s Songs So Far, Ranked

Now, I love an Olivia Rodrigo ballad as much as the next girl — her slower songs are arguably when she’s at her most vulnerable, and we’re going to see a lot of her classics higher up on this list. But “logical” isn’t one of those classics. It’s a serviceable breakup song, sure, but that doesn’t mean it’s memorable. The lyrics are a little too cliché for my taste (“Two plus two equals five, / I’m the love of your life”), and this isn’t the Olivia Rodrigo song that most would reach for when they’re crying alone at 2:00 a.m (I can confirm).

The main reason I’ve ranked “scared of my guitar” a little higher is because Rodrigo’s doing something interesting with her song’s storyline. We have a disillusioned version of the singer, who’s terrified of picking up her instrument of choice because of what she might say (“I can’t lie to it the same way that I lie to you”). It’s a little meta, a little experimental, but not enough to be considered an all-time great.

SOUR is a near-impeccable breakup album, and “hope ur ok” is what stopped it from achieving perfection. The song feels out of place with the previous 10 tracks, and while some diehard Olivia fans may argue that it’s all about acceptance and forgiveness and blah, blah, blah, I beg to differ. SOUR was meant to be… well, sour, and I’d much rather hear Rodrigo wail and scream and cry than have her claim inner peace.

I feel like “making the bed” is one of the more underrated tracks on GUTS. It gives us a side of Rodrigo that we don’t often see: she knows she’s the problem, but here she is, still making her own bed and shitting in it. When she makes this realization as the chorus swells, it’s clear that she’s singing for all the girls who can’t put a stop to their own trainwrecks.

Now this is an angry ballad. Rodrigo knows exactly how to use her piano chords to her advantage, and when the crescendo starts to hit, she’s full of rage — both at herself and the boy she fell for. “And I try to be tough, / but I wanna scream,” she wails, “How could anybody do the things you did so easily?” There, there, Olivia, we’ve all been there.

If “hope ur ok” was a subpar acceptance song (and I’ll stand by this), “stranger” is Rodrigo revisiting the final stage of grief with a lot more grace (and a better guitar hook). “stranger” is upbeat to a tee, with Rodrigo strumming along while she sings about a love who’s no longer hers. “You’re just a stranger I know everything about,” she sings before letting out a few cheerful “oohs.”

So there’s a little call-and-response going on here. While SOUR’s “brutal” had Rodrigo screaming “Where’s my fucking teenage dream?”, GUTS’ “teenage dream” sees her realizing that it was never hers to begin with. “Got your whole life ahead of you, / you’re only 19,” Rodrigo sings (more to herself than anyone else). “But I fear that they already got all the best parts of me.”

The fun major chords are out again on “girl i’ve always been” (think Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”), and now we have Rodrigo embracing just how messy she can be. “I got panic rooms inside my head,” she sings while strumming, “But I am the girl I’ve always been.”

Whoever’s telling Olivia Rodrigo that she isn’t pretty enough should be burned at the stake. This track’s all about her falling apart under impossible beauty standards, set to the bouncy rhythms of a dreamy pop song. 

We’re starting to get into Rodrigo’s punkier anthems with “ballad of a homeschooled girl.” The drums are angry, her voice a tad bit crunchy, and she’s busy talk-singing about sitting with the wrong guys (and having a very off-kilter gaydar). The best part of the track is her singing faster and faster about social suicide, before collapsing into a string of grunts and “la-la-las.”

Like Rodrigo, we’ve all had the urge to stalk a lover’s ex. There’s no need to be ashamed — in fact, there’s not a hint of shame in Rodrigo’s voice as she lets out an angsty rant about knowing her boyfriend’s ex’s star sign and blood type. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.

Being in love is always a little cringe, and Rodrigo’s down bad in “love is embarrassing.” She’s pissed and fuming, mostly at herself for catching feelings for a “loser who’s not worth mentioning” (and yet here she is, singing a whole song about him). She’s screaming about crucifying herself, and honestly? Gets.

Is “lacy” about Rodrigo’s alleged beef with Sabrina Carpenter? Some fans think so, while others speculate it’s about Taylor Swift (although I feel like this theory is a little shakier). Regardless, the hint of drama only adds to the track’s melancholy as Rodrigo laments over not being able to compare to “smart, sexy Lacy.”

While I feel like Rodrigo’s upcoming album is going to give us a few more tracks about her being happy in love (see “drop dead”), “so american” does a great job of capturing her at her most lovey-dovey. The bassline’s all bounce, just like Rodrigo as she simps over her new man. “I might just be in lo-lo-, lo-lo-, lo-lo-, lo-lo-lo-lo-love,” she sighs.

There’s something so dramatic about “vampire” (other than the fact that it gets its name from the Gothic monster). It starts off with a few sad piano keys, but Rodrigo quickly picks up the pace as she bawls at her latest lover-turned-bloodsucker. “vampire” is the type of song you sing when you’re spiraling through a crashout, when you need to be a little theatrical, and when you just need to sob-scream about everything going wrong.

In “happier,” Rodrigo turns her pettiness into something gutwrenching. The singer loves writing in direct conversation with an ex, and this song has her asking him not to be so happy with his new flame. “I hope you’re happy, / just not like how you were with me,” she sings. Equal parts sweet and sour, “happier” is one of Rodrigo’s gentler — but still very painful — breakup tracks.

With a set of pensive back-up vocals and a softly strummed guitar, Rodrigo’s groaning over all the times she stood up for her man, only for him to eventually cross her. “Oh, look what we became,” she keens. She’s hurt, she’s 17, and she’s giving us one of the most vulnerable moments in the entire SOUR album.

As the opener to GUTS, “all-american bitch” makes it clear that Rodrigo has a lot to get off her chest. It almost tricks us into thinking it’s another cutesy love song à la SOUR, only for it to make a sharp pivot into a punk-fueled rock track. You can almost feel Rodrigo jumping on top of a table and screaming — the perfect segue into the song’s viral coda (“I’m sexy and I’m kind!”).

Because SOUR came with its own stand-out angry anthems (“brutal” and “good 4 u”), it’s easy to forget about the throbbing bassline and pent-up teenage rage of “jealousy, jealousy.” But the track has all the precursors to some of Rodrigo’s favorite themes — identity issues, the fear of being perceived, and how she just wants to be a regular teen.

It’s okay, you can cry to “enough for you.” Armed with a mic and a fingerpicked guitar, Rodrigo spends roughly three minutes chewing her ex out for making her feel small. “You left me there crying, / wondering what I did wrong,” she sings with just the hint of a catch in her voice. While it’s not the saddest of Rodrigo’s repertoire so far (more on that in a bit), “enough for you” is cutting it pretty close.

Olivia, who hurt you? Again? The singer recently debuted “begged” while working double duty on Saturday Night Live, and I’m ready to bet that it’s one of the most tragic songs on the new album. While sitting all alone on a swing (with a group of back-up singers sadly harmonizing in the background), Rodrigo sings, “What a shame you’re not here / to witness my devotion.” In “begged,” our pop punk queen is playing the waiting game, and I’m not so sure that she’s winning.

Look at what our girl can do with a piano. Everything is stripped back down to their simplest forms on this track, including Rodrigo herself as she asks her man if he’s going to hurt her again today. There’s a lot of pain in “1 step forward, 3 steps back,” and it’s a dewy ballad that goes out to every girl who’s been caught in a gaslighter’s fire.

I think Olivia has the most fun when she’s at her brattiest. She deals with a lot of painful emotions across both her albums, but some of her most entertaining tracks are when she’s busy calling a man out on his bullshit. “I guess that therapist I found for you, she really helped” has to be one of Rodrigo’s funniest lines to date.

If you’ve ever had a man tell you not to worry about a girl, only for him to turn around and fall in love with her, then “traitor”’s the song for you. For all the girls who’ve been gaslit, “traitor” vindicates us and gives us a good, cathartic chorus to sing to when we need to remind ourselves that we were right.

Besides being bratty in “get him back!”, Rodrigo’s also being messy with a capital M. But this is what makes this one of her best pop-punk anthems to date. While she’s not as messy here as she is in “bad idea right?” (more on that soon), “get him back” sees Rodrigo rocking Joan Jett-level guitar riffs while trying to decide if she wants to key her ex’s car or make him lunch. Another all-time great Olivia Rodrigo lyric: “But I am my father’s daughter, so maybe I could fix him!”

Although Rodrigo’s already warned us that some of the songs on you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love are going to be heartbreak bangers, “drop dead” is not one of them. It’s a downright happy pop song, and it does so well catching that warm, gooey feeling of being in love for the first time. “There was so much more joy in the songwriting,” Rodrigo told Cosmopolitan when asked about her process for the new album. That joy is on full display with “drop dead.”

Yes, Olivia, get crazy! “bad idea right?” should be the song that plays in the back of your head whenever you think of breaking no contact. Rodrigo’s raging and reckless as she sneaks off for an ill-advised hook-up, and you’re stuck between wanting to root for her (and maybe for yourself, if you’re in the same spot) or screaming at her for trying to reconnect (and again, maybe you’re projecting here). Unlike its sloppy heroine, “bad idea right?” gives us crisp guitar solos and a bassline as cocky as Rodrigo feigning innocence as she trips and falls into her ex’s bed.

Olivia loves a trick. As the opener to SOUR, “brutal” gives us three seconds of a dreamy set of strings before immediately switching to distortion and a loud, banging grunge guitar. Unlike the other songs of the album, which mainly focus on Rodrigo’s love life, “brutal” has her seething over the ugliness that comes with being 17. “If someone tells me one more time / ‘Enjoy your youth,’ I’m gonna cry,” she spits out. Rodrigo sounds like a snarl on “brutal,” and you can’t help snarl along with her.

As the thesis statement to you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, “the cure” presents us with a slightly more mature Rodrigo as she admits that falling in love doesn’t solve all of her problems. “I thought I found the antidote with you,” she confesses, “but my head is full of poison, and / my heart is full of doubt.”  “the cure” has all the insecurities of SOUR, mixed with some of the gravitas Rodrigo’s gained by pondering love and self-worth over the course of five years. It’s a long, orchestral contemplation, and it packs a strong punch come the chorus. And, although “the cure” may be a fairly recent release, I’m willing to argue that this might be one of Rodrigo’s best songs to date (and she agrees).

When I hear “drivers license,” I am an angsty teenager again, just starting to learn how to drive (a coming-of-age rite of passage) and falling out of love for the first time (another rite of passage). For teens who were at the peak of adolescence when Rodrigo dropped this masterpiece of a breakup ballad, “drivers license” captures such a specific moment in our youth that, dare I say, it will never lose its shine (no matter how many times we sob out its lyrics on the car radio). Rodrigo couldn’t have written a better debut single — “drivers license” sat atop charts like the Billboard Hot 100 for weeks in a row, and there was a good three months when it was the go-to song on TikTok. Again, some real-life drama added fuel to the fire surrounding “drivers license,” but it painted Rodrigo as the brokenhearted underdog, ready to tear things down with a track that showed her side of the story. Rodrigo may have released multiple hit singles since “drivers license,” but for its longevity and emotional power, it must stay close to the top of this list.

For a hot second after Rodrigo released “drivers license,” there was talk of the singer becoming a one-hit wonder (as is often the case with musical artists who find unprecedented levels of fame on TikTok). Thankfully, Rodrigo put the heresy to bed with her follow-up single, “deja vu.”

If “drivers license” is Rodrigo licking her wounds at the end of a relationship, “deja vu” is her turning the tables and taking a bite out of the boy who left her hurt in the first place. Airing on the side of the melodramatic, Rodrigo directly addresses her very unoriginal ex-boyfriend, who’s spent the weeks after their breakup by using all the same moves (e.g. rehashing old jokes, playing Billy Joel) on a new girl. “deja vu” was the first time we saw Rodrigo come into a sense of agency with her breakup, and it was glorious to see. What’s more, it made sure that we saw Rodrigo’s emotional and musical range. “[We] didn’t want to do the safe thing and put out another heartbreak ballad,” she said of the single in an interview with Rolling Stone. “I can make heartbreak songs but I can also make cool alternative pop songs. I didn’t want to be pigeonholed into the ‘heartbreak ballad girl’ thing.”