Kaelynn Hayes’ “rethink us” is the soundtrack for every self-sabotaging, overthinking goddess who’s ever spiraled over a missed opportunity.
But let’s back up.
He was in the kitchen making me a grilled cheese I didn’t ask for—still wearing my lip gloss on his neck—while I sat on the cold bathroom floor in nothing but his hoodie, legs bare, glitter smudged across my chest like battle scars from the night before. My phone was face-up on the tile, feeding me algorithmic heartbreak, and somewhere between a half-saved thirst trap and sweet memory of a guy I ghosted because I thought he’d ghost me first, “Over complicate, overthink all the small things…” slipped into the air as if it knew exactly what kind of spiral I was about to dive into.
Kaelynn Hayes didn’t just write a breakup song. She cracked open the brain of every high-functioning, hot girl with abandonment issues. The kind of song that hits so hard, you feel it in the ache behind your eyes and the tight pull in your stomach you get right before you cry. Or call your ex. Or both.
We’ve seen new female artists hitting the scene who are Outswifting Taylor Swift, writing lovelorn, almost poetic tracks in angsty-girl style but managing to elevate them into actual pop songs—not just poetry set to music, the way Miss Taylor’s been coasting lately. One of these is Kaelynn Hayes. She’s 18, suburban Chicago-born, baby-faced, and heartbreak-hardened, and her delivery cuts like she knows exactly what it’s like to unravel in front of someone who swears they love you.
She gets it. Like, she gets it.
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“I wrote this song about how I overthink even the littlest things too much,” Kaelynn says. “I doubt myself in relationships, both platonic and romantic, and it makes me think that people will abandon me…”
Girl, SAME.
“Try to turn it off, oh I hate how it haunts me / Wish I could but my mind’s always up to something…” —you can practically hear the restless pacing in those lines, that wild-eyed need to fix something that wasn’t even broken until we tore it apart with our own shaky hands.
And then comes that chorus: “I’m scared to be too much / Scared that one day you’ll wake up / And see everything I see…”
Like yes, babe, drag us. We ARE scared. We are too much. We are exhausting. But we’re also breathtaking in our honesty. Kaelynn turns that fear—of being seen, of being left, of loving too loud—into something cathartic. Her voice doesn’t beg; it confesses. Whispery, wounded, and so goddamn relatable.
Sonically, “rethink us” is pure pop dopamine—upbeat tempo, synth sparkle, and a pulse that dares you to dance even as you spiral. I’d file it next to early Tate McRae, maybe a splash of Fletcher, with a side of the teen angst I thought I’d aged out of until last week’s spiral reminded me I very much had not.
And here’s what makes it so genius: you can scream this song in your car with tears running down your face, or you can blast it while making out with someone who you probably won’t text back—and it works in both scenarios.
“Sabotaging us ‘cause we could be a good thing…”
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You ever bail on someone the second it feels safe? Yeah. Me too. I once climbed out of a perfectly good relationship because he folded my laundry unprompted and I was like, “Oh no, this is too healthy. I must destroy it.” This song? That moment.
But there’s a tenderness here, too. “Pull me close / Say don’t say sorry / Talk me down / With your arms on me…”
It’s that soft landing we hope for after we shatter everything. It’s what makes this song feel hopeful and honest.
Kaelynn’s vocal is the sauce here. She never oversells this track. She lets the lyrics sting on their own. And when she sings, “I wanna see me through your eyes,” it’s not needy—it’s brave. It’s the most beautiful form of asking for love.
This isn’t just another sad-girl bop. “rethink us” is a psychological striptease for the anxious heart. The messy, magnetic soundtrack to our midnight doubts and 5 am recoveries. If you’ve ever woken up next to someone you adore and immediately started spiraling about how they’ll inevitably leave, this one’s for you.
It’s for the girls who cry during sex and then laugh during the breakup. For the ones who kiss with their eyes open, just to catch the look on his face in case it’s the last time. For the overthinkers, the heart hoarders, the soft sluts who believe in fairy tales but plan for disaster.
Kaelynn Hayes is just getting started, but “rethink us” proves she’s not here to tiptoe. She’s here to rip open our pretty little traumas and turn them into power-pop confessionals. And we are so here for it.
