From West End Girl to Sour, the 10 Best Revenge Albums of All Time
The common adage may dictate that revenge is a dish best served cold, but—luckily for us—musicians tend to serve it piping hot, with a side of pettiness. And though plenty of standalone clap-back tracks have emerged from celebrity break-ups, it takes a certain level of passion, skill, and audacity to commit to an entire revenge album.
Lily Allen’s West End Girl—a scathing, no-holds-barred album allegedly at least partly inspired by the dissolution of her marriage to Stranger Things star David Harbour—takes the idea of airing your dirty laundry to a level that few others would dare to, even by today’s oversharing standards. Reportedly written and recorded in Los Angeles over the course of just 10 days, it has the feel of someone setting their diary entries and voice notes to music, and has spawned a thousand reaction videos since being released in October.
RosalĂa’s Lux, meanwhile, sees pop’s most sonically ambitious star working through themes of sex, regret, heartbreak, and, yes, revenge. Though much of the press around the album—as well as its artwork, in which RosalĂa dons a nun’s-habit-slash-straightjacket—has focused on the singer’s path to emotional salvation, there are plenty of shots fired throughout, perhaps most overtly on “La Perla,” in which she calls a former partner a “peace thief,” “emotional terrorist,” a “walking red flag,” and “huge disaster.”
Here, find 10 of the best to ever go long-form with revenge.
Lemonade, Beyoncé
When life gives you lemons (being cheated on by your husband of a decade, even though you are Beyoncé) you make lemonade—or, in this case, Lemonade. Surprise-released in 2016, the visual album meticulously documented Beyoncé’s emotional journey through marital betrayal, and had the whole world speculating about the identity of “Becky with the good hair.” Her most ambitious and sonically diverse record to date, Lemonade saw Beyoncé working through her pain and anger and eventually coming to a place of forgiveness and healing, with Jay-Z still by her side nearly another decade later.
Rumours, Fleetwood Mac
Quite simply one of the best and messiest albums of all time, from one of the best and messiest bands of all time. Everyone was fucking, fighting, and divorcing, and out of the ashes of their emotional chaos emerged their artistic magnum opus. The truly incredible thing about Rumours is that they were all getting musical revenge through lyrics they were writing about each other while in the same studio, and then making the person they were writing about harmonize to said lyrics. “Dreams” and “Go Your Own Way” being on the same record is basically like if Eamonn and Frankie had released “Fuck it (I Don’t Want You Back)” and “F.U.R.B.” together as a mixtape. Can you imagine if they’d stuck “Silver Springs” on there (as originally intended), too?
Blackout, Britney Spears
“It’s Britney, bitch,” begins the iconic fifth studio album by the greatest pop star to ever do it. Blackout saw Spears—no longer blonde and smiling, but mad as hell in a black wig—return to music amidst a very public breakdown that was both exacerbated and mercilessly documented by the evil paparazzi culture of the 2000s. The record is a giant middle finger to everyone that had anything to say about her and the way she was choosing to handle her fame and personal life, the endless media narratives that circled her, and all the loser men she’d had to encounter along the way.
Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan
Dylan’s 15th studio album detailed the breakdown of his marriage to his ex-wife, Sara. Their relationship survived his rumored constant infidelity, but apparently couldn’t outlast a two-year home-renovation project in Malibu. Dylan denied it being strictly autobiographical, but the record’s themes of pain, betrayal, loss, and regret have canonized it as one of the best, and most deeply personal, break-up albums of all time. “Idiot Wind,” regularly referred to as one of the meanest songs ever written, wonders if his former lover even knows how to breathe without him. Sinead O’Connor once said that it “gave me permission to be angry,” and so for that alone, we must thank him.
Sour, Olivia Rodrigo
A masterclass in teenage angst and the heartbreak that follows the painful end of a first love, Sour broke the global Spotify record for the biggest opening week for an album by any female artist, and catapulted Rodrigo from Disney kid to superstar in the process. A perfect blend of anger, vulnerability, and infectious one-liners, all spread over immaculate riffs and melodies, Rodrigo’s record showed everyone that revenge is in fact a dish best served sour.
Here, My Dear, Marvin Gaye
This album may as well have been called Divorce. Written and recorded as Gaye was going through a messy split from his first wife, Anna, it’s as full of recriminations and sarcasm as it is sincerity and self-pity. The Motown singer’s mood going into its production could hardly be described as inspired: “Why should I break my neck when Anna was going to wind up with the money anyway?” he wrote in the liner notes. Nonetheless, artistry prevailed, and he ended up using the recording process as the closest thing men got to therapy back in 1977. His ex-wife hated it and considered suing Gaye for invasion of privacy, but eventually decided against it.
Eternal Sunshine, Ariana Grande
Though her most famous break-up album might be Thank U, Next, Eternal Sunshine shows what revenge sounds like when you’ve genuinely healed and moved on from your past relationship. Devoid of any bitterness and awash instead in the quiet acceptance that comes with spiritual growth and age—or, to use the parlance of our times, your Saturn return—Grande’s ultimate act of revenge is leading a life well-lived. Brighter days ahead indeed.
Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette
Alanis Morissette walked so Rodrigo could run. Jagged Little Pill’s lead single, “You Oughta Know,” is one of the best and most vengeful songs of the 20th century, but the rest of the record is full of the same raw honesty, female rage, and moments of introspection. Released when Morissette was just 21 years old (I know), if has resonated with three generations of women since its release in 1995.
Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, My Chemical Romance
Okay, so this isn’t a revenge album in the strictest sense of the word, but it celebrates the concept of sweet revenge, and so it’s earned itself a spot on this list. Plus, the music video for the lead single-slash-millennial anthem, “I’m Not Okay (I Promise),” is a trailer for a fake movie in which the school goths get revenge on the oppressive jock class.
Reputation, Taylor Swift
“I’m sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, ’cause she’s dead.” No list of revenge albums would be complete without a mention of the pettiest artist of our times. Recorded as a response to media scrutiny around her personal life, Swift’s Reputation era saw her shedding her good-girl image to clap back at anyone who had dared to besmirch her good name and image as America’s Sweetheart. Reputation is Swift in her villain era, letting us know that she doesn’t care what anyone thinks about her and her dating history.
Yoo