Olivia Rodrigo sure knows how to write an angry break-up song.
Rodrigo recently found herself back in headlines after announcing her upcoming album, you look pretty sad for a girl so in love. Produced by her longtime collaborator Dan Nigro, the album is set to drop on June 12.
Although the Filipino-American pop star has spent the past few years making sure she can’t be pigeonholed as a heartbreak singer (see “all-american bitch,” “pretty isn’t pretty,” etc.), Rodrigo definitely knows exactly what beats and rhythms need to go into a gut-puncher of a track. As she herself so aptly put it in an interview with Billboard, “What’s the point of putting out a record if it isn’t something that you feel is important to say to people?”
In honor of you look pretty sad for a girl so in love making its way to us real soon, we’re looking back on all the times when the pop-punk princess was at her angstiest.
5. ‘get him back!’
Who doesn’t love a messy break-up? In her punk-infused shit fit, Rodrigo rages over wanting to make her ex-lover feel really, really jealous or really, really bad. The GUTS track jumps from Rodrigo wanting to meet his mom to giving him an uppercut, and the backup vocals on her anthem are more than egging her on. “I’m gonna get him so good,” she laughs on the fade-out, “he’s gonna love me and hate me at the same time.”
Best line: “I am my father’s daughter, so maybe I could fix him.” (Olivia, no!)
4. ‘vampire’
Rodrigo doesn’t waste any time turning a set of piano chords into a rager. An angry rebuke against the bloodsucker/fame-fucker that put her through a six-month ringer, “vampire”is one of Rodrigo’s angstiest and most raw singles. Things get bloody as the pop-rock star screams at her vampire for sucking her dry, only for him to move on to other girls to sink his teeth into.
Best line: “I’ve made some real big mistakes/But you make the worst one look fine.”
3. ‘good 4 u’
At some point, every girl’s probably told her boyfriend to go to therapy (myself included). On her third hit single from Sour, Rodrigo’s damn pissed at the “sociopath” who’s moved on from her after a couple of weeks, while she’s been stuck crying on her bathroom floor. A shift from the softer pop sounds of her previous singles at the time (“drivers license” and “deja vu”), “good 4 u” is a grungey, crunchy punk anthem for all the girlies who’ve been fucked over by an ex.
Best line: “Maybe I’m too emotional/But your apathy is like a wound in salt.”
2. ‘bad idea, right?’
There’s no shame in hooking up with an ex! I think? Well, Rodrigo doesn’t know either, because “bad idea, right?” pretty much has her trying to rationalize her latest bad decision. This ex certainly isn’t the yummiest (“I’m sure I’ve seen much hotter men/but I really can’t remember when”), but he’s living, breathing, and game to open up his bed for another night of “reconnecting.”
Best line: “I only see him as a friend, I just tripped and fell into his bed.”
1. ‘deja vu’
For all her angry guitar riffs and shady one-liners, Rodrigo is sometimes her most devastating when she’s just lamenting directly at her ex. “deja vu” sees her calling him out over using all of his old moves (driving for ice cream to Malibu, watching reruns of Glee, trading jackets like they used to do) with his new flame. “So when you gonna tell her/ that we did that too?” Rodrigo asks him, before pointing out that it all feels like déjà vu.
Best line: “Play her piano, but she doesn’t know/ that I was the one who taught you Billy Joel.”
