The List of Ingrid Michaelson Albums in Order of Release Date

Few singer-songwriters have built a career as quietly influential as Ingrid Michaelson’s. Long before “sync placement” was a marketing buzzword, this Staten Island-raised, piano-trained artist was proving that a self-released CD sold out of the trunk of a car could out-earn major-label budgets — and if you’ve ever teared up during a Grey’s Anatomy montage, you already know her voice. Working through Ingrid Michaelson Albums in Order means tracing indie folk-pop’s evolution from the mid-2000s blog era all the way to Broadway, with Michaelson writing much of the soundtrack herself.

Her breakout single “The Way I Am” and the piano-driven “Girls Chase Boys” turned her into an unlikely Billboard Hot 100 regular for an unsigned artist, while songs like “Be OK” and “You and I” became go-to sync licenses for TV and film. She’s since picked up an Emmy nomination for her original song in Hulu’s Little Fires Everywhere and a Grammy nomination for the Notebook Original Broadway Cast Recording, joining a lane of literate, piano-forward songwriters like Sara Bareilles and Regina Spektor. Working through Ingrid Michaelson Albums in Order shows just how far a DIY songwriter can travel on hooks alone.

All Ingrid Michaelson Albums Available on: Apple Music

Also See: Sara Bareilles Albums in Order

How Many Albums Does Ingrid Michaelson Have?

Ingrid Michaelson has released nine studio albums to date, along with one compilation project, an EP catalog of around half a dozen releases, and more than a dozen official singles. Her studio run stretches from 2005’s Slow the Rain to 2024’s For the Dreamers.

The List of Ingrid Michaelson Albums in Order of Release Date

Here’s the complete list of Ingrid Michaelson albums in order of release.

1. Slow the Rain — January 10, 2005
2. Girls and Boys — May 16, 2006
3. Be OK — October 14, 2008
4. Everybody — August 25, 2009
5. Human Again — January 24, 2012
6. Lights Out — April 15, 2014
7. It Doesn’t Have to Make Sense — August 26, 2016
8. Songs for the Season — October 26, 2018
9. Stranger Songs — June 28, 2019
10. For the Dreamers — August 23, 2024

All Ingrid Michaelson Albums List in Order

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1. Slow the Rain (2005)

Tracks:

Before Cabin 24 Records became her business card, Slow the Rain was Michaelson’s proof-of-concept: a self-funded, self-recorded debut she put out while still holding down day jobs after touring with a theater troupe. There’s no major-label sheen here, no guest features, no chart run — just a 34-minute pop record that laid out the melodic instincts she’d sharpen for the next two decades. It’s the only fully independent, pre-fame release in her catalog, which makes it a genuine curio for fans who only know her from Grey’s Anatomy placements. Tracks like “Porcelain Fists” hint at the wry, conversational lyric style that would define “The Way I Am” two years later. It rarely gets streamed today, but it’s the true starting point of Ingrid Michaelson Albums in Order.

2. Girls and Boys (2006)

Tracks:

This is the record that changed everything. Self-released in 2006 and reissued the following year through Cabin 24 and Original Signal, Girls and Boys became a word-of-mouth phenomenon once Grey’s Anatomy began featuring cuts like “Breakable” and “Corner of Your Heart.” The reissue eventually cracked the Billboard 200 at No. 62 and had sold roughly 278,000 copies in the US by 2009 — massive numbers for an unsigned artist. “The Way I Am,” with its deadpan Rogaine joke and unfussy piano hook, became her signature crossover single and a national Old Navy ad campaign staple. Two decades later, it’s still the entry point most fans use to discover her catalog.

3. Be OK (2008)

Tracks:

1. Be OK
2. Giving Up
3. Over the Rainbow
4. The Chain (Live from Webster Hall)
5. Lady in Spain
6. Keep Breathing
7. Oh What a Day
8. The Way I Am (Live on WERS)
9. Can’t Help Falling in Love (Live At Daytrotter)
10. You and I
11. Be OK (Acoustic)

Technically a compilation rather than a proper studio album, Be OK is still an essential stop for anyone working through her chronology. Released in October 2008 with proceeds benefiting cancer research, it mixes previously unreleased songs, live cuts, and a handful of covers, including a warm, harmony-stacked take on “Over the Rainbow.” The title track and “You and I” became two of her most licensed songs, turning up regularly in film and TV years after release. It debuted at No. 35 on the Billboard 200 on first-week sales of about 15,000 copies, a strong showing for what was essentially a stopgap release. Critics singled out “The Chain” as a highlight, calling it one of the best vocal-harmony arrangements in her early catalog.

4. Everybody (2009)

Tracks:

1. Soldier
2. Everybody
3. Are We There Yet?
4. Sort Of
5. Incredible Love
6. The Chain
7. Mountain and the Sea
8. Men of Snow
9. So Long
10. Once Was Love
11. Locked Up
12. Maybe

Michaelson has called Everybody “completely autobiographical, snapshots of my life,” and it plays like her most emotionally direct record up to that point, built around the idea that everyone just wants to be loved. Co-produced with Dan Romer and released through Cabin 24 in August 2009, the album pushed further into string-laced arrangements without losing the intimacy of her earlier work. Lead single “Maybe” kept her radio momentum going after “The Way I Am,” while “The Chain” reappeared here in studio form after its live debut on Be OK. Reviews were mixed-to-positive, with Entertainment Weekly giving it a solid grade while noting the sameness of the ballad-heavy back half. It remains a fan favorite for its unguarded lyrics.

5. Human Again (2012)

Tracks:

1. Fire
2. This Is War
3. Do It Now
4. I’m Through
5. Blood Brothers
6. Black and Blue
7. Ribbons
8. How We Love
9. Palm of Your Hand
10. Ghost
11. In the Sea
12. Keep Warm
13. End of the World

After a three-year gap, Michaelson returned with her darkest, most rock-inflected record yet, produced by David Kahne, best known for his work with Paul McCartney and Regina Spektor. Human Again traded some of her trademark whimsy for heavier, more impassioned songwriting, a shift she described as reflecting “a really dark time” in her life. It debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and hit No. 1 on the Independent Albums chart, her strongest commercial showing to date, buoyed by the single “Ghost” and a national tour that sold out night after night. Metacritic scored it 70 out of 100, with several outlets praising the newfound grit in her vocal performance. The title comes from a lyric in “Palm of Your Hand,” and the whole record functions as a kind of emotional exhale after a long personal low point.

6. Lights Out (2014)

Tracks:

1. Home
2. Girls Chase Boys
3. Wonderful Unknown (featuring Greg Laswell)
4. You Got Me (featuring Storyman)
5. Warpath
6. Handsome Hands
7. Time Machine
8. One Night Town (featuring Mat Kearney)
9. Open Hands (featuring Trent Dabbs)
10. Ready to Lose (featuring Trent Dabbs)
11. Stick
12. Afterlife
13. Over You (featuring A Great Big World)
14. Everyone Is Gonna Love Me Now

For the first time in her career, Michaelson stepped back from sole songwriting duty, bringing in collaborators like Cason Cooley, Katie Herzig, and Jacquire King for a more expansive, guest-heavy sound. The results paid off commercially: Lights Out matched Human Again‘s No. 5 Billboard 200 debut, sold roughly 160,000 copies in the US by that summer, and produced her second Hot 100 entry with “Girls Chase Boys.” A deluxe edition followed in November 2014 with six bonus tracks, including a live cover of Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love.” Critics were split — Metacritic pegged it at a “generally favorable” 74, with some reviewers calling it her best work and others feeling the ballad count ran high. Either way, it’s the record where her sound grew from bedroom-pop intimate to full studio production.

7. It Doesn’t Have to Make Sense (2016)

Tracks:

Written in the wake of her divorce from musician Greg Laswell and the death of her mother, It Doesn’t Have to Make Sense is Michaelson’s rawest, most cathartic album, and several critics called it her strongest record to that point. Lead single “Hell No” gave her a defiant anthem for the moment, performed on both The Tonight Show and The Late Late Show to promote the release. The album debuted at No. 19 on the Billboard 200 and marked her third straight top-three finish on the Independent Albums chart. A companion EP, Alter Egos, followed in 2017, reworking five tracks with guest vocalists including Sara Bareilles and Tegan and Sara on new versions of songs like “Miss America” and “Whole Lot of Heart.” It’s grief filtered through hooks rather than dirges, which is exactly why fans still cite it as a career highlight.

8. Songs for the Season (2018)

Tracks:

1. Looks Like a Cold, Cold Winter
2. White Christmas (featuring Christina Perri)
3. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
4. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
5. I’ll Be Home for Christmas (featuring Will Chase)
6. Happy, Happy Christmas
7. What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?
8. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree (featuring Grace VanderWaal)
9. Mele Kalikimaka (featuring Allie Moss & Bess Rogers)
10. Christmas Time Is Here
11. All I Want for Christmas Is You (featuring Leslie Odom Jr.)
12. Auld Lang Syne

Michaelson had wanted to make a Christmas record for years, and Songs for the Season delivers on that with a deliberately retro, 1950s-inspired production built around vintage microphones and live string sections rather than the layered contemporary pop of her prior albums. Nearly the entire tracklist is covers of holiday standards, with one original, “Happy, Happy Christmas,” written in the shadow of both her parents’ recent deaths. Guest turns from Christina Perri, Grace VanderWaal, and Leslie Odom Jr. gave the record crossover appeal beyond her usual audience, and it debuted at No. 94 on the Billboard 200 while reaching No. 4 on Billboard’s Top Holiday Albums chart. A deluxe reissue with five extra tracks, including a Jason Mraz duet, followed in 2021. Critics praised the “cozy,” old-Hollywood warmth of the arrangements over her more familiar indie-pop instincts.

9. Stranger Songs (2019)

Tracks:

1. Freak Show
2. Young and in Love
3. Hey Kid
4. Hate You
5. Jealous
6. Missing You
7. Best Friend
8. Mother
9. Christmas Lights
10. Pretty
11. Take Me Home

A self-professed Stranger Things superfan, Michaelson built her eighth studio album entirely around the Netflix series, timing its June 2019 release to land just ahead of the show’s third season. Synth-driven production from Jason Evigan, Alex Hope, and Sam de Jong pushed her sound toward ’80s-tinged pop, a sharp left turn from the acoustic warmth of Songs for the Season released only months earlier. Lead single “Missing You” set the tone, while “Freak Show” leaned into the show’s misfit-heroes theme explicitly. The album peaked at No. 128 on the Billboard 200 and No. 3 on Independent Albums, and Michaelson herself has described the record as a natural extension of the pop-forward songwriting she was developing for the Broadway musical adaptation of The Notebook around the same time. It’s her most conceptually unified project, built for a specific fandom rather than a general audience.

10. For the Dreamers (2024)

Tracks:

1. Wait There for Me
2. Love Is (with Jason Mraz)
3. We Belong
4. A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes (with Sneha)
5. If This Is Love (For the Dreamers version)
6. What a Wonderful World
7. Grow Up
8. Only You (with Juan Ariza)
9. You Make Me Feel So Young
10. Hallelujah
11. It Never Ends
12. Backyard

Five years after Stranger Songs, and following her Broadway run writing the score for The Notebook, Michaelson returned with a bossa nova- and jazz-standards-inspired ninth album produced largely with Juan Ariza. For the Dreamers mixes original songs with warm reinterpretations of classics like “What a Wonderful World” and “You Make Me Feel So Young,” alongside “If This Is Love,” a song originally written for The Notebook musical. The Jason Mraz duet “Love Is” became the record’s centerpiece single, and the album reached No. 20 on Billboard’s Top Jazz Albums chart and No. 15 on Traditional Jazz Albums — new chart territory for an artist previously associated with indie pop. Released on her own Cabin 24 Records, it plays like a victory-lap record: unhurried, romantic, and clearly informed by her years writing for the stage.

All Ingrid Michaelson Tours in Order by Year

Michaelson has toured behind nearly every album in her catalog, building a reputation for intimate, banter-filled shows long before she was selling out theaters. Her Human Again tour in 2012 ran across multiple legs in North America, Europe, and Australia, with shows selling out almost nightly, and she’s continued the pattern of multi-leg, guest-support tours ever since, most recently returning to the road in support of her later releases.

1. Human Again Tour, 2012
2. Lights Out Tour, 2014
3. Hell No Tour, 2016 (in support of It Doesn’t Have to Make Sense)
4. Songs for the Season Holiday Tour, 2018–2021
5. Stranger Songs Tour, 2019

Conclusion

Across two decades, Ingrid Michaelson has moved from a self-funded folk-pop debut to Grey’s Anatomy-fueled stardom, through a darker rock-leaning period, into a Christmas record, a Stranger Things concept album, and finally a jazz-and-Broadway victory lap. Revisiting Ingrid Michaelson Albums in Order makes clear just how restless her songwriting has been, even as her voice and piano stayed the throughline the whole way. With The Notebook musical continuing to tour and For the Dreamers still finding new listeners, her catalog keeps growing rather than settling into a greatest-hits holding pattern. For longtime fans and newcomers alike, there’s rarely been a better time to start at the beginning and listen straight through.

Ingrid Michaelson FAQs

What is Ingrid Michaelson’s most popular album? Girls and Boys (2006) remains her most culturally significant release thanks to Grey’s Anatomy exposure and “The Way I Am,” though Human Again and Lights Out are her highest-charting studio albums on the Billboard 200.

Is Ingrid Michaelson still making music? Yes. Her most recent studio album, For the Dreamers, came out in 2024, and she continues to write for stage projects, including The Notebook musical.

Did Ingrid Michaelson write music for Broadway? Yes. She wrote the music and lyrics for The Notebook, a Broadway musical adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel, which earned a Grammy nomination for its cast recording.

What genre is Ingrid Michaelson’s music? She’s generally classified as indie pop and folk-pop, though her catalog spans rock-leaning production (Human Again), holiday standards (Songs for the Season), synth-pop (Stranger Songs), and jazz/bossa nova (For the Dreamers).

Which Ingrid Michaelson songs charted on the Billboard Hot 100? “The Way I Am” and “Girls Chase Boys” are her two highest-charting singles, peaking at No. 37 and No. 52, respectively.