Everyone knows the big ones. ‘Scars To Your Beautiful’ soundtracked a whole generation’s group chats, ‘Here’ turned social anxiety into an anthem, and her voice on that Logic track is still buried somewhere in all of our brains, whether we want it there or not. But if that’s where anyone’s Alessia Cara knowledge stops, they’ve been missing the best part of her entire catalog. Because here’s what the casual listeners don’t know. Underneath the radio hits sits this quiet, aching, absolutely gorgeous collection of ballads that most people have never pressed play on. The kind of songs that live at track 7, track 14, buried in a deluxe edition, waiting for someone to actually find them. And the fans who did find them? They will not shut up about it, and honestly, good. They shouldn’t.
Alessia has always been a writer first. She was the sole credited songwriter on multiple tracks across The Pains of Growing; she pens every lyric, even when a whole team builds the music around her, and that pen shows up loudest when things slow all the way down. So we went digging through four albums and two EPs to pull out the soft ones that deserve so much more love than they get. Ranked, because we like to make things difficult for ourselves. A quick ground rule before we start. We’re measuring “underrated” partly by the numbers here, and it’s kind of wild once you see it laid out. Her biggest songs sit in the hundreds of millions, even billions, of streams. So when a song is floating around 30 or 40 million? For an artist of her size, that’s a deep cut. That’s a song people slept on. Let’s fix that.
12. ‘Stars’ (Know-It-All, 2015)
We’re starting all the way back at the debut, and this one’s a piano-driven slow-burn about dropping the act. It’s a plea to a partner to stop performing perfection and just be flawed and human together, scars and all. Critics were split on it back in the day; some found it lovely, others thought it played too safe, but there’s a tenderness here that a 19-year-old Alessia sold completely. Sitting around 31 million streams, this is one of the most overlooked things on her whole first record.
11. ‘A Little More’ (The Pains of Growing, 2018)
Short, intimate, mostly just her and an electric guitar. ‘A Little More’ is about that specific hunger you feel when you’re falling for someone and you just want to know everything, get closer, peel back one more layer. She wrote and produced it herself and put it out around her 22nd birthday, and it has this unfinished, caught-in-the-moment quality that makes it feel like you’re hearing a diary entry. Deeply underrated, deeply lovely.
10. ‘My Song’ (Know-It-All deluxe, 2015)
You have to go looking for this one, and that’s exactly why we treasure it. Tucked into the deluxe edition, ‘My Song’ is a slow, soulful bit of self-ownership built around the idea that good girls don’t make history. It’s early Alessia, flexing the exact independence and attitude that would define her later work. A true reward for anyone who scrolled past the standard tracklist.
9. ‘Best Days’ (In the Meantime, 2021)
Okay, this one hurts in the best way. ‘Best Days’ is just Alessia and a piano, sitting in that terrifying quarter-life crisis thought of what if the best part is already over? Fun fact for the real ones: it actually grew out of a bridge she’d scrapped from another song on the record. What a thing to salvage. Around 35 million streams, and every one of them earned!
8. ‘October’ (This Summer, 2019)
Dreamy, melancholy, and bittersweet in that way only the end of something beautiful can be. She wrote ‘October’ while opening for Shawn Mendes and later called it the most emotional and meaningful track on the whole This Summer EP. It captures that ache of a fleeting, perfect moment slipping through your fingers right as you realize how good it was. Around 48 million streams and criminally under-discussed.
7. ‘Wherever I Live’ (The Pains of Growing, 2018)
This is the one for anyone who’s ever felt rootless. A stripped-down acoustic gem about the strange loneliness of living hotel-to-hotel on tour, packed with tiny mundane details that make it hit like a memory. It’s the kind of quiet writing that rewards you more every time you come back to it.
6. ‘Stone’ (Know-It-All, 2015)
Featuring Sebastian Kole, ‘Stone’ is about having that one person who keeps you grounded when everything else feels like too much. And here’s the part we love: Alessia has said it doesn’t have to be romantic. It could be a parent, a best friend, whoever your rock is. That openness is what gives it staying power. Sitting around 67 million, it’s her most-streamed pick on this list and still nowhere near as known as it should be.
5. ‘Subside’ (Love & Hyperbole, 2025)
Onto the newest era, and ‘Subside’ is a flex. A somber piano ballad that swells with strings and these lush stacked vocals into something genuinely cinematic. At almost four and a half minutes, it’s the longest thing on Love & Hyperbole, and she uses every second to sit in this existential headspace about time passing and youth slipping away. If anyone doubts her as a vocalist, play them this.
4. ‘Clearly’ (Love & Hyperbole, 2025)
The closer, and what a way to end a record. ‘Clearly’ is a shimmering acoustic song about choosing to heal instead of holding a grudge, rebuilding trust, and finally seeing a relationship for what it is. It’s soft and generous and mature in a way that feels like watching an artist grow up in real time. The perfect final note!
3. ‘Bluebird’ (In the Meantime, 2021)
Here’s where the top of the list gets serious. ‘Bluebird’ is a breezy acoustic breakup ballad, but it flips the whole formula. Instead of bitterness, it’s about setting someone free and genuinely wishing them well on the way out. That kind of selflessness is so much harder to write than heartbreak, and Alessia makes it sound effortless! Fans bring this one up constantly, and they’re right to.
2. ‘Drive’ (Love & Hyperbole, 2025)
If you trust anyone’s taste on this list, trust hers. Alessia herself named ‘Drive’ a favorite deep cut, and once you hear it, you get why. It’s a restrained, dreamy acoustic thing about protecting your own peace, retreating inward, and choosing yourself for once. There’s something so calming about it, like exhaling after a long week. An artist pointing directly at her own hidden gem is about as good of a recommendation as it gets!
1. ‘I Miss You, Don’t Call Me’ (In the Meantime, 2021)
And here it is. The best-kept secret in her entire catalog. ‘I Miss You, Don’t Call Me’ is a slow, devastating ballad about missing someone you know is bad for you and white-knuckling your way through not reaching out. It’s the push and pull of every messy heartbreak compressed into one song. It just sits there on the tracklist, quietly being perfect, waiting for you. If you take one song from this whole list, take this one.
These songs showcase the softer side of Alessia Cara that far too many people have never met. She’s spent her whole career being boxed in by a couple of massive singles, but the real magic has always been in the quiet corners of her records. Go press play on the deep cuts. Your feelings will thank you later, or maybe they won’t, because some of these will absolutely wreck you. But worth it!
What’s your favorite underrated Alessia Cara ballad? Let us know over on our socials: X, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit.
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