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By: Victoria Autocunas
September 22, 2025
Ava Max
Source: SoundCloud
Breakout Star named Amanda
Ava Max (also known as Ava/Amanda Koci) started out in the music industry releasing her own music in 2008 under the stage name Amanda Kay. Makes sense, right?
Under the name AVA, she released one single called “Take Away The Pain” in the year 2013.
Her first single as “Ava Max” was “My Way” but she did not come to popularity until the year 2018 with her big tune “Sweet But Psycho.” Not many people have even heard of her, which to me they are missing out because her songs are absolute dance anthems. With that came other singles like “So Am I,” “My Head and My Heart,” and “Kings and Queens.” She recently released her third studio album, “Don’t Click Play,” but I will be ranking her songs on the album “Diamonds and Dancefloors,” from most underrated to least underrated.
Let’s Dance
“Diamonds and Dancefloors” is personally my favorite album released by her so I am excited to talk about these songs. This album came out in 2023. This came forth with the singles “Weapons” and “Million Dollar Baby.” Million Dollar Baby got a bit more attention than Weapons did. Million Dollar Baby is also the first track to this album.
Most Underrated
“Why do you only promise underneath the stars?”
This tune is one of my top five and I don’t understand why anyone else loves it like I do. As I previously said that she is a very underrated artist but this would definitely be in an Ava Max deep cut playlist. Only for diehards.
“Get outta my head, get outta my heart”
This is my favorite song off the album BY FAR. The beat it starts with gives me chills and hooks you in immediately. Whenever it comes on shuffle on Spotify I always jam. Best of the best.
“Our wildest habits brought us here tonight”
Dancing’s Done definitely deserves more recognition and a music video. It is very visual, and when I listened to the album for the first time I thought I would not like it since it is a bit slow and I love her fast beats. The lyrics definitely changed my mind, she is just a beautiful lyricist. That’s another reason why I love Ava’s music. It is so visual.
“Show me how to love like it’s the last night on earth”
This song is the type you would hear at a Monster Golf course. It gives Halloween tune beat vibes or even a monster movie. As if the monster or vampire would fall in love with her in this movie scene. I just learned to really appreciate this one because of my love of dark things. It’s actually brilliant!
“I’m on the ceiling, I mean it”
This is probably the song by her I don’t like. I love all her tunes but something about this one I don’t like. The ceiling lyric reminds me of the song on Lady Gaga’s MAYHEM album, Perfect Celebrity. It goes “Find my clone, she’s dancing on the ceiling now.” I wonder if that’s what both of them were going for. I know Gaga meant that there are two versions of her, one on Earth as Stefani and one as “Gaga”, so I wonder if Ava meant there’s two of her trying to defend her from the bad. Obviously Ava’s song came out before, but it’s still an interesting thing.
“Hanging on the wire”
The chorus of this song is the most catchy. I inherently see the theme I haven’t before in her music which is dark writing. Dark visuals and dark breakup stories. This would be a song I hear in gym class for some odd reason. Maybe just because it reminds me of high school.
“It’s what I fear the most”
This tune might be the catchiest of them all on this album. To me the beginning “ahhh” is my favorite. It really hooks me in and lets me know that the song will be a banger of a tune. I feel like this tune really defines the vibe of the album, even though the other songs are dark and other-world tunes, the song being called Ghost just pinpoints the theme.
“Roses on the dash”
After the first reading of the title, it reminded me of Ava’s song “OMG What’s Happening” because in the song she says, as a lyric, “Hold up wait a minute.” I had originally read it in her voice like she says in the song, but I was wrong. I thought maybe it would be a continuation of that song too. This song is a bit slower and a little more catchy. This tune is about how her partner is back and forth and ends up cheating her. “OMG What’s Happening” is about rethinking breaking up with someone. Two completely different things. To me it sounds like the beat of this song definitely fits the song.
“Feels like Inception”
The beat in the beginning of this tune sounds like the opening of an 80s video game which really gives the music vibe of this tune. There is a bit of a rock vibe as well in the “bridge” part of the song which is instrumental.
Most Popular
‘She’s a miracle”
For me, Ava Max’s music was always very female empowering and this song just pinpoints it to me. It really is about hyping herself up. In the music video for this tune she is two different people and one is confident and one isn’t and it just expresses what women really can do with confidence.
“One of us would risk it all”
“One of Us” is just very much about two people in a relationship and how one person does all the work. Many people have gone through this and personally I have too and it’s not fun. It is a really relatable song to whoever needs to hear it.
“Stop using your words as weapons”
Words can hurt people like knives. Ava is relating this to a relationship or someone in her life who would cut her down with their words but didn’t let that impact her. I respect that very much because I am a sensitive person and honestly inspires me to want to be stronger and not let people’s words impact me unless they are good. As I previously said, Ava’s music inspires me as a woman in this day in age, and this song specifically.
“Always make it all about you”
As this is the last song I would be reviewing, I figured it would be the most popular and first single from the album. Recently while watching an interview of Ava on Good Morning America, she talked about this song and its meaning.
“My life was basically just going downhill and I was in a bad situation in my relationship.”
I love when artists express the importance of a song without saying it explicitly. I love this song and it’s up there in my top five Ava singles.
After having listened to this album about 6 times while writing this review to get them all just right as I was listening to it, I would rate this Ava Max bop of an album 4/5 Cyclones. Yes, it sounds like I like everything I listen to but it really doesn’t get better to this album. Compared to some artists I listen to, I put her and this album on a pedestal. Every song on this album fits the vibe of the album and there are really no surprises which I enjoy. I will be forever listening to this album and no matter what Ava puts out, it will always be number one for me.
My Rating:
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