Each Olivia Rodrigo Music, Ranked

A delicate account of the social anxiousness that may get left over from the isolation of her home-schooling days—to not point out a intelligent salute to Bob Dylan, one in all her songwriting idols, who impressed her with “Ballad of a Skinny Man.” The glitch is the unlucky refrain “social suicide,” a klutzy line that doesn’t work as a hook or a joke in any respect, and will get in the best way of the tune residing as much as the title’s promise. As for Olivia singing “each man I like is homosexual”? Finest-case situation.

Finest line: “I’m on the skin of the best inside joke.”

Olivia interpolates the 2017 Taylor Swift traditional “New 12 months’s Day,” from Fame. A haunting and highly effective chronicle of a foul romance. She realizes it’s time for her to step off this emotional curler coaster, whereas she’s acquired the possibility. However it’s troublesome, as a result of “the curler coaster’s all I’ve ever had.” The day after she wrote this tune, the dude dumped her. Good riddance.

Finest line: “Like, am I fairly? Am I enjoyable, boy? I hate that I offer you energy over that kinda stuff.”

O-Rod was the hit of final summer time’s Glastonbury Competition, however she actually sealed the deal when she introduced out a neighborhood hero. “He’s in all probability the very best songwriter to return out of England!” she introduced, as The Remedy’s Robert Smith ambled onstage. The entire world was shocked by the sight of the goth elder grinning from ear to ear—not one thing you see every single day—as he sang a few Remedy classics together with her, together with the 1992 hit “Friday I’m In Love.” They preserved their duet on a stand-alone vinyl single in addition to her important Dwell at Glastonbury album. Within the liner notes, Liv referred to as her set “essentially the most exhilarating 90 minutes of my life.” 

Finest line: “All the time take a giant chew/It’s such a beautiful sight/To see you eat in the course of the night time.”

Close to the top of You Appear Fairly Unhappy for a Lady So in Love, she tries to maneuver on, cruising the bars of Silverlake in search of her subsequent Mr. Unhealthy Thought Proper? She vows, “Previous errors are simply new data.” (Talking of errors: pop stars complaining about individuals with “faux jobs”… in 2026? In a refrain? An indication of how briskly she was speeding to crank out these ultimate songs.) The Eighties manufacturing has a camp contact with the robot-boy vocal choir, within the type of Madonna’s “Materials Lady” or Lene Lovich’s “New Toy.” 

Finest line: “So I hit the brand new 12 months like a single woman at a Vegas bar/Rocking my minidress with a vodka cran and an open coronary heart.”

An early signal of Olivia’s aptitude for canopy variations, from one of many funniest-titled Christmas albums ever: Excessive Faculty Musical: The Musical: The Vacation Particular: The Soundtrack. Liv offers a style of issues to return by singing Joni Mitchell’s Blue traditional a couple of bummed-out December, feeling weak within the knees. It’s acquired a complete new resonance now after You Appear Fairly Unhappy, since “River” sounds just like the template for her new break-up songs. (Sure, I mentioned within the intro that HSM songs don’t depend, however I suppose that is dishonest, and I’m nonetheless a traitor.)

Finest line: “I’m egocentric and I’m unhappy.”

A charity tune for the 2026 Struggle Baby profit compilation Assist (2). Olivia sings the modern-day wedding ceremony normal from the Magnetic Fields’ grasp tunesmith Stephen Merritt, made well-known by Peter Gabriel. She referred to as it “one in all my fav songs ever.”

Finest line: “The guide of affection is lengthy and boring/Nobody can raise the rattling factor.”

When Olivia headlined Lollapalooza in Chicago, she introduced out a shock visitor: her childhood heroes Weezer, the very first band she noticed in live performance as somewhat woman. (She was born in between “Dope Nostril” and “Beverly Hills.”) They performed two Blue Album bangers that she launched as a vinyl 7-inch, turning “Say It Ain’t So” right into a cross-generational pop-punk full-circle second.

Finest line: “Like father, stepfather, this son is drowning within the flood.”

However the subsequent tune was even higher, as she sang, “I look identical to Buddy Holly and also you’re Mary Tyler Moore!” (One in all her energy strikes, with regards to cowl variations: she by no means modifications the pronouns or gender roles. All the time the best way to do it.) Olivia singing “you want a guardian” to Rivers Cuomo—was she incorrect? A reminder that she makes such a superb pop star as a result of she’s a superb pop fan, in the beginning. 

Finest line: “What’s with these homies dissing my woman?”

Technically a Excessive Faculty Musical tune, nevertheless it makes the reduce since (1) she wrote it by herself and (2) she nonetheless often does it reside, which makes it canon. What might be a realer 16-year-old lyric than “I miss the times after I was younger and naive”?

Finest line: “All I’ve is myself on the finish of the day/And all I would like is for that to be okay.”

A limited-edition single for File Retailer Day — Olivia and Noah Kahan interpret one another’s tunes, recorded within the BBC Radio 1 Dwell Lounge. She sings “Stick Season,” whereas Noah sings “Lacy” on the flip facet — fantastically proving they’re mutual followers who’ve listened shut to one another’s voices. Additionally they sang this collectively onstage at her Madison Sq. Backyard present; she’s referred to as it one in all her favourite live performance moments.

Finest line: “Now I’m scared of climate ‘trigger I see you when it rains.”

The morose finale of You Appear Fairly Unhappy — she resists the temptation to present a tidy ending to the story, or to wrap it up with a bow, as an alternative selecting to let all of it hang around with a stream of chaotic, messy, obscure, hit-or-miss pictures, dashed out in haste whereas the break-up ache remains to be contemporary. (Together with an out-of-nowhere “her” that in all probability wouldn’t have survived a second draft.) The fantastically muted association covers up the glitches, making it work as a temper piece. 

Finest line: “It’s an actual quiet home with the bathe left on/5 beers within the fridge and the second automotive’s gone.”

All by her superior summer-2025 tour, Olivia saved inviting her heroes up onstage, however she outdid herself at New York’s Governors Ball. Qu’est-ce sue c’est? David Byrne, who joined her for a jubilant duet on the Speaking Heads’ 1983 space-funk traditional “Burning Down the Home.” She launched it as a vinyl single, together with Byrne’s Worry of Music-style model of “Drivers License.” (So…the remainder of the Bitter covers mission? Is that also even taking place? David would in all probability cowl the entire album if she requested.) OliviByrne have been undoubtedly making flippy-floppy, buying and selling their finest strikes in a protracted, touching, and hilarious dance-off. Notice: Byrne wasn’t the one New York CBGB punk legend she honored at Gov Ball. Her encore ensemble was a tribute to Blondie’s Debbie Harry, who wore the identical outfit for her well-known 1976 Punk journal photograph session.

Finest line: “Unusual, however not a stranger.”

Olivia faucets into the identical empathetic spirit of Fiona Apple’s “Shameika” on Fetch The Bolt Cutters, or Taylor Swift’s “Seven” on Folklore — residing with the advanced reminiscence of a childhood good friend. She sings about queer youngsters getting rejected by their households, and tells them long-distance, “I hope you understand how proud I’m that you simply have been created/With the braveness to unlearn all of their hatred.” Consider it or not, not so way back (like, oh, let’s say your entire freaking twentieth century), listening to phrases like this from a teen pop star would have been completely unthinkable. 

Finest line: “Tackle the letters to the holes in my butterfly wings.”

“It took you two weeks to go and date her/Guess you didn’t cheat, however you’re nonetheless a traitor.” Your honor, the prosecution rests. 

Finest line: “Whereas she’s sleeping within the mattress we made/Don’t you dare overlook about the best way you betrayed me.”

Do you get deja vu? The perfect of her live-cover singles, with Robert Smith becoming a member of her for one of many Eighties’ saddest songs — whereas she wore a T-shirt saying, “You Know All The Phrases to ‘Simply Like Heaven.’” (It will take almost a 12 months for the world to determine that reference.) She’s a lifelong Remedy superfan — who can overlook the footage of teenage Liv within the automotive belting “Boys Don’t Cry”? After they sang this duet, she posted a photograph of them backstage downing pictures — that’s so American of her. Robert Smith, we’ll meet once more — increased up on this checklist.

Finest line: “Spinning on that dizzy edge/Kissed her face and kissed her head.”

“Right here’s the half the place the woman will get pissed,” certainly. Olivia goes off on a hilarious rant towards a suspected rival, the one time on Fairly Unhappy she exhibits her OliviAggro fangs, and it’s the closest she involves a pop-punk snarler, regardless of the wonderful synth-pop buzz. “My Means” is deliciously petty, self-mocking, irresponsible, and misogynistic, within the “Distress Enterprise”/“Higher Than Revenge” custom. However given how a lot Olivia worships Blondie, her position mannequin sounds prefer it should be Debbie Harry’s sneer in “Rip Her To Shreds.” Enjoyable reality: essentially the most well-known cowl model of Frank Sinatra’s “My Means” is the punk makeover from the Intercourse Pistols’ Sid Vicious. Within the biopic Pistol, it’s sung by the actor taking part in Sid: Louis Partridge.

Finest line: “Perhaps I’m a petty bitch, however you made me resort to this! That’s it! I win!”

Olivia sings concerning the form of compare-and-despair self-loathing that outcomes from extreme telephone dependancy. She sings about it with all her typical sympathy and wit, particularly when she’s scrolling by “cool classic garments and trip images.” Plus one in all her first killer bridges. The studio model is stiff, however “Jealousy, Jealousy” actually took off as one in all her reside hell-raisers, with a punked-out Conflict-style assault, as she chants, “Co-comparison is killing me slowly.”

Finest line: “A reasonably face, a fairly boyfriend too/I wanna be you so unhealthy and I don’t even know you.”

A torchy change-of-pace piano weeper in cocktail mode, mourning the burnout of a relationship, together with a failed getaway to Huge Sur. Who amongst us HASN’T damaged down in a crying match on the curb at LAX? 

Finest line: “Perhaps I’m a cussed overthinker, however I’ve been pondering over this loads.”

A shifting confession about rising up, perhaps even getting well-known, from the POV of a hyper-responsible solely little one and Disney starlet. She acquired what she needed, however she doesn’t like who she’s turning into, all the time pretending she’s older than she is. “Getting drunk at a membership with my fair-weather associates,” she sighs. “Push away all of the individuals who know me the very best/However it’s me who’s been making the mattress.” 

Finest line: “I inform somebody I really like them, simply as a distraction/They usually inform me that they love me like I’m some vacationer attraction.”

A skeletal demo of a tune written after her third album was turned in, launched as vinyl-collector bait on the flip facet of “The Remedy,” however a really completely different story a couple of generic cad. The man in “The Remedy” tries onerous to suck out her toxins, however this man isn’t making an attempt in any respect, leaving her to marvel, “Bare in your mattress/Child, the place have you ever been?” 

Finest line: “We each do our greatest/It’s a disgrace that my finest is rather more.”

She talks powerful to an ex — however solely after their break-up, as she rehashes their previous arguments in entrance of her bed room mirror. “I used to be simply driving to the studio,” Olivia as soon as mentioned. “And I used to be listening to the Smiths and there’s this lyric [in ‘I Know It’s Over’] the place he says, ‘It takes braveness to be form.’ I used to be actually upset on the time and I used to be like, ‘What if I don’t what to have braveness and what if I don’t wish to be form?’” She wrote the lyrics on the subsequent stoplight: “It takes energy to forgive, however I don’t really feel sturdy.”

Finest line: “Damage individuals harm individuals/We each drew blood, however man, these cuts have been by no means equal.”

Her nice soundtrack theme for The Starvation Video games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. It matches the pastoral acoustic folk-horror mode of the franchise — undoubtedly reduce from the identical fabric as Taylor Swift’s “Protected and Sound” with the Civil Wars. She sings from the angle of the heroine Lucy Grey, however she places her personal stamp on it. It’s one more Olivia tune about an older man who deliberate on choosing her up and tossing her away, solely to search out that she nonetheless haunts him lengthy after she escapes.

Finest line: “I wager you figured I’d cross like winter/Be one thing simple to overlook.”

A powerfully candid story of unfavorable physique picture and torturously low vanity. It’s nearly a foretaste of “The Remedy,” dissecting the damaging ideas that may prey on an insecure younger thoughts, as she laments, “I purchased all the garments that they informed me to purchase/I chased some best my entire fucking life.” The closely flanged guitar may be very 1985, a intelligent signal of producer Dan Nigro’s ever-fruitful Eighties inspiration.

Finest line: “It’s in my telephone, it’s in my head, it’s within the boys I deliver to mattress.”

She will be able to mislead everyone else about her emotions — even the boy in her arms, who she doesn’t actually love. However this woman can’t idiot her guitar, as a result of it is aware of all her secrets and techniques and provides her the reality. (“You may inform your guitar issues you could’t inform individuals,” as Paul McCartney as soon as informed Rolling Stone. “And it’ll reply you with issues individuals can’t inform you.”) It’s a muted acoustic ballad with some Girls of the Canyon swoops in her vocal. 

Finest line: “I’m so petrified of my guitar/As a result of it cuts proper to the guts/It is aware of me too effectively, so I acquired no excuse/I can’t mislead it the identical means that I mislead you.”

The huge finale of Guts, a piano confession constructing to the climactic lighters-up refrain. Olivia blows out the candles as she turns 20, singing, “I’m sorry that I couldn’t all the time be your teenage dream.” (Three years after she sang “I’m so sick of 17/The place’s my fucking teenage dream?”) However she’s acquired powerful questions for the long run, asking, “When am I gonna cease being clever past my years? And simply begin being clever? When am I gonna cease being a fairly younger factor to guys?” 

Finest line: “When does wide-eyed affection and all good intentions begin to not be sufficient?”

“Purple” begins out as a candy love buzz, with a brand new wave benediction from Trendy English’s “I Soften With You,” the 1982 banger that Olivia says she’s already picked as her wedding ceremony tune. However she rewrote it with a post-break-up outro, the place this contemporary English romance will get slowed down in her self-doubts and anxieties. (It’ll be so fascinating to match once we get to listen to the unique demo model.) The outro goes acoustic, so it segues simply completely into the opening strums of “The Remedy” — a second that actually exhibits the brilliance of the Rodrigo/Nigro workforce as knowledgeable album-crafters.

Finest line: “I soften with you, your pink and my blue/Now I see the world in purple.”

A heart-tugging story of a younger woman realizing her devotion is completely one-sided, and that her boyfriend is a drag. Regardless of what number of instances you hear “Sufficient For You,” her voice all the time touches your soul when she rages, “Silly, emotional, obsessive little me.” Preach, Olivia: “I attempted so onerous to be all the pieces you want/Simply so that you can say you’re not the praise kind.” That’s technically the “already a middle-aged asshole for all times” kind. 

Finest line: “Don’t inform me you’re sorry, boy/Really feel sorry for your self/As a result of sometime I’ll be all the pieces to any person else.”

A wonderful Guts (Spilled) break-up story, and like a number of the others, it goes for a hippie-folkie vibe of incense and patchouli, versus the unique album’s electric-youth mall-punk. “Stranger” is a splendidly smug kiss-off to an ex, telling him, “You’re only a stranger I do know all the pieces about.” Bonus factors for the Jewel-like breakfast scene the place she sips her morning espresso and asks herself, “How did that occur?… For just a few man? Like, you’re just a few man!” 

Finest line: “You’re the smartest thing that I’ll ever maintain thus far out of my life.”

Can we discuss how insanely underrated “Logical” is? It’s essentially the most powerfully uncooked ballad on Guts. Like so a lot of her Guts songs, it’s a narrative a couple of younger lady getting twisted, molded, and humiliated by a “grasp manipulator” of an older man. Rodrigo’s voice shakes when she wails, “Mentioned I used to be too younger, I used to be too mushy/Can’t take a joke, can’t get you off.” 

Finest line: “Loving you is loving each argument you held over my head/You introduced up the women you possibly can have as an alternative.”

The emotion is all within the hushed calm of her voice, with a fantastically intricate vocal association. Sonically and melodically, an replace of “Favourite Crime” from her debut, however with extra grownup ache. The acoustic guitar lifts it excessive, with Nigro going for the Aaron Dessner contact. 

Finest line: “What a disgrace you’re not right here to witness my devotion/And my limitless effectively of wants.”

Olivia fesses as much as the chaotic romantic melodramas she performs out within the privateness of her thoughts, over “some second-string loser who’s not value mentioning.” She rips him aside, however goals all her wittiest barbs at herself, admitting, “I’m planning out my wedding ceremony with some man I’m by no means marrying.” “Love Is Embarrassing” simply retains sounding higher and higher over time, as she retains refining it onstage. One in all Dan Nigro’s most impeccable Eighties new wave productions, within the guitar/synth meld of the Automobiles or the Motels or Lacking Individuals, full with an ideal Dale Bozzio hiccup in her voice. 

Finest line: “You discovered a brand new model of me/And I rattling close to began World Struggle III.”

She goes for coffeehouse Joni vibes right here, strumming and chirping over the bongos as she breaks the guts of one more Look At You, Cool Man who thought he had this candy younger factor underneath his thumb. She kicks round some good taunts, from “I can’t say I’m an ideal ten” to “I’m a candle within the wind” to “I’ll flip you out, I’ll flip you in.” However you need to love her heel flip, as her voice drips with sadistic malice.

Finest line: “I’ve captors I name associates/I acquired panic rooms inside my head/And I get down with crooked males/However I’m the woman I’ve all the time been.”

Even an album stuffed with obsessive Remedy worship, “Maggots for Brains” actually goes off the deep finish. This lands proper within the zone between the Remedy album that actually feels like New Order (The Head on the Door) and the New Order album that actually sounds just like the Remedy (Brotherhood), and what? Nothing incorrect with that zone. That is electro obsession at its finest, which inserts a tune concerning the loneliness of lacking somebody in a long-distance relationship, feeling like a zombie in your physique.

Finest line: “I went to a celebration however solely on precept.”

Some of the quizzical and enigmatic tunes on Guts, a susceptible story about getting obsessive about a strong lady, both a fantasy determine or a real-life crush. (Or each.) Olivia can’t get “Sensible Attractive Lacy” out of her head, a “dazzling starlet/Bardot reincarnate.” She’s determined for Lacy’s approval, but she finally ends up feeling poisoned, lamenting, “It’s such as you’re manufactured from angel mud.” 

Finest line: “I despise my jealous eyes and the way onerous they fell for you/I despise my rotten thoughts, and the way a lot it worships you.”

An exquisitely quiet love tune, as a lady and a boy hop a fence within the park to take a night-time stroll, of their blissful “sticky-sweet tangerine” solitude. “Honeybee” completely captures that intimate temper. When she sings, “Choose me up, stroll me dwelling,” the sound is so hushed and unhurried; these lovers have on a regular basis on this planet. 

Finest line: “I hope I by no means see what your face seems like going/A face I swear I may spend my entire life figuring out.”

A rocked-out guitar tantrum, with a few of Olivia’s shadiest shade: “He had an ego and a mood and a wandering eye / He mentioned he’s 6-foot-2 and I’m like, dude, good attempt.” When she sings, “I wanna meet his mother, simply to inform her her son sucks,” that’s some zoomer-Joni degree shit. (On Blue, Joni Mitchell has the identical dialog with Leonard Cohen’s mother, although not in these actual phrases.) Well-known final phrases “I’m my father’s daughter, so perhaps I can repair him?”

Finest line: “I wanna key his automotive, I wanna make him lunch.”

A beautiful guitar ballad in Nineties indie-rock mode, with a refrain that cleverly tweaks Pavement’s “Right here” for an Olivia tune that’s really slanted and enchanted. “Favourite Crime” explores one in all her favourite lyrical themes: how powerful it may be to cease blaming your self for different individuals being imply to you.

Finest line: “Doe-eyed as you buried me/One coronary heart broke, 4 fingers bloody.”

You appear fairly unhappy for a goth so in love. Like so many unhappy youngsters over the a long time, Olivia takes her most non-public fears and anxieties to The Remedy guru Robert Smith — this dream duet is mainly the dialog so many people have had with Robert in our angsty teenage minds, so kudos to Olivia for turning her baby-bat fantasy into this just-like-heaven tune. (Love the best way she begins “staring on the ceeeeei-ling,” a intelligent nod to Staring on the Sea.) The moody synth-pop malaise comes from The Prime or Japanese Whispers; so does the puckish humor. He actually did present her, present her, present her how to do this trick.

Finest line: “I ought to discuss to a good friend, however I can’t get away from bed.”

“I’m sensing some undertones” — now there’s a superb approach to kick off a love story. Olivia flaunts her wit in a devilishly catchy Eighties synth-pop bop about romantic obsession, the sort that you simply attempt to discuss your self out of in useless, even when it’s the most important lie you ever mentioned. 

Finest line: “I’m certain I’ve seen a lot hotter males / However I actually can’t keep in mind when.”

A New York valentine the place her coronary heart melts like wax within the solar, with a hovering Pulp-style refrain and a Lover-worthy bridge, setting off sparks in the dead of night. “I’m a automotive rushing down the boulevard with no brake” is such a memorable picture — one of many surprisingly uncommon instances in her songs that Ms. I Drive Alone Down Your Road truly makes use of her drivers license. 

Finest line: “Each night time just like the one earlier than/I dream of you from like 1 to 4.”

“Good 4 U” was her third hit, after the large shock influence of “Drivers License” and “Deja Vu.” So individuals tried to organize themselves for this one. However “Good 4 U” was the hit that actually established Olivia because the all-purpose trendy pop star, updating traditional grunge feminist pop-punk for a complete new period. She goes for Nineties Alanis/Courtney/Veruca Salt realness, savaging a “rattling sociopath” for the deadly mistake of pissing her off. After “Good 4 U,” no person would ever underestimate her once more.

Finest line: “It’s like we by no means even occurred? Child, what the fuck is up with that?”

A wonderful nugget of Eighties new wave, the sort that Southern California women respect like no person else. “So American” rocks within the mode of the Go-Gos or Blondie or Devo. It evokes the Devo banger “Come Again Jonee” — a tune that Debbie Harry coated on SNL in 1980. (And naturally, Debbie Harry simply returned to SNL in Could to introduce Olivia. This woman all the time is aware of her historical past.) “So American” celebrates the everlasting mutual crush between London boys and the Cali women who adore them, as she sighs, “Oh God, it’s simply not truthful of him to make me really feel this a lot!” She performed it final summer time at Glastonbury. “I really like English music,” she informed the group. “And as luck would have it, I additionally love English boys.” 

Finest line: “Ft on the dashboard/He’s like a poem I want I wrote.”

Essentially the most underrated spotlight on Bitter, a improbable Fifties-style doo-wop weeper with a imply streak. Olivia exhibits off her uniquely masterful aptitude for strains that come out of nowhere to ship a sucker-punch. Regardless of what number of instances you hear this tune, there’s by no means any approach to be ready for the disturbing second when she casually sneers, “Consider me fondly when your fingers are on her.” 

Finest line: “Do you inform her she’s essentially the most lovely woman you’ve ever seen? And everlasting love bullshit you’ll by no means imply?”

An ideal theme tune to kick off Guts, with the righteous bravado of her riot-grrrl rock heroes in Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney, or Babes in Toyland. This brat-punk rager begins the album the identical means “Brutal” begins Bitter, besides Liv’s somewhat older and much more brutal. She isn’t making an attempt to maintain a lid on her angle right here, or her mouth — she doesn’t even get 30 seconds in earlier than she’s boasting, “I’ve acquired the solar in my motherfucking pocket!” Insurgent grrrl, you’re the queen of my world.

Finest line: “I do know my age and I act prefer it/I acquired what you may’t resist/I’m the right all-American bitch.”

“They are saying trendy love’s a merciless endeavor / And to that I say: fuck it, no matter” — the best way Olivia caps off that motto with a defiant second “whateverrrr!” is essentially the most excellent second on an album that’s a soul-crushing pile-up of excellent moments. “I do know everyone modifications, however I hope that we don’t” is such a easy but emotionally highly effective line, particularly since that’s what a coronary heart is, one thing designed to maintain altering ceaselessly. Each element hits dwelling: the surging Eighties jangle of the blue-sunshine guitar, the best way she sighs “ever and ever and ever,” even the yacht-rock-loving large sister. Right here’s sending out a prayer for Karen O to hitch Olivia for this one at Daisy Chain Fields.

Finest line: “Inform me but once more about how we met and what you considered me.”

How upset is she? Unrelentlessly! What a hardcore rock & roll teen-angst anthem. Olivia jumps out of the audio system, demanding some solutions: “I’m so sick of 17/The place’s my fucking teenage dream?” She stands within the punk rock custom of Poly Styrene, who would have beloved this tune. You go proper on refusing to take pleasure in your youth, Olivia. Parallel parking is overrated.

Finest line: “Ego crush is so extreme/God, it’s brutal out right here!”

“Take a look at you, cool man” is likely one of the finest taunts in any break-up tune, ever. Carly Simon certainly needs she considered that line for “You’re So Useless.” Olivia sinks her fangs right into a social-climbing fame monster who tries out his vampiric tips on essentially the most susceptible women, “as a result of women your age know higher.” “Vampire” was the primary single from Guts, and blew up immediately right into a Quantity One which has simply saved sounding higher (and meaner) in heavy rotation, with the disco-style build-up to the hi-NRG refrain.

Finest line: “You sank your enamel into me / Blood sucker, fame fucker/Bleeding me dry like a goddamn vampire.”

Olivia packs a lot psychosexual rage into three minutes, seething with paranoid fury and petty jealousy, ranting, “I’m so obsessed along with your ex! I do know she’s been asleep on my facet of your mattress!” Weirdly, “Obsessed” didn’t even make the album — she saved it for the deluxe Guts (Spilled). (It acquired bumped to make room for “The Grudge.”) However it’s the hardest, darkest, wittiest most startling rock blast she’s ever completed, co-written with St. Vincent. O-Rod can’t cease fantasizing concerning the thriller woman who acquired away — she barely even notices her poor boyfriend, as a result of he’ll by no means get her sizzling the best way his ex does. She asks questions the place she undoubtedly doesn’t wish to hear the reply. (“Is she associates with your folks? Is she good in mattress?”) However the sly means she coos “I acquired points, I can’t assist it child,” the Nirvana loud/quiet/loud guitar roar, her “Jolene”-style lust for the opposite lady — it’s a bad-vibes bombshell.

Finest line: “She’s acquired these lips, she’s acquired these hips, the life of each fucking get together.”

Reality: Pleased love songs are a lot more durable to drag off than unhappy ones. However “Drop Useless” is an over-the-top mega-crush anthem in contrast to the rest in her songbook, proving why Olivia’s playful tunes are each bit as nuanced and complicated as her weepers. It’s an intricately crafted gem, as if she’s making an attempt to mix Taylor Swift’s “Enchanted” and Pulp’s “Frequent Individuals” into the identical tune. However “Drop Useless” by no means stops exploding, letting her female instinct run wild. (It’s stuffed with callbacks to her 2025 Glastonbury triumph — like the best way she was seen within the crowd screaming together with Pulp, to not point out her shirt that teased the road “ all of the phrases to ‘Simply Like Heaven.’”) Hell, even lyrics about astrology can’t damage it. If you happen to don’t swoon on the ultimate “kiss me and I miiiiight” crescendo, your batteries want a critical recharge. 

Finest line: “Yeah, I’d like it in case you stroll me dwelling/If you happen to promise we are able to go actual sluggish/‘Trigger I’ve acquired chewing gum and a bunch of stuff I’d wish to know.”

What a heartbreaker of a tune. Olivia calls “The Remedy” the “thesis assertion of You Look Fairly Unhappy for a Lady So In Love.” The acoustic guitar beams in from Liz Phair — “Glory,” that’s the one. However the wispy vocal feels like a Nineties dream the place Juliana Hatfield joined the Smashing Pumpkins in 1992, because it ebbs and flows like “Disarm.” It’s a wrenchingly susceptible ballad the place she confides, “I used to play a recreation in my head after I date a man.” Some recreation. But regardless of all her self-doubt, “The Remedy” can be stuffed with empathy for her lover’s struggles to ease her ache. (“I’ve acquired toxins in my bloodstream you tried so onerous to suck out” is such a intelligent callback to the “Vampire” bloodsucker.) Not essentially a break-up tune — simply the second in any relationship while you understand it received’t magically repair your points, even while you’re each making an attempt.

Finest line: “Why can’t you come sew me up?”