“Unapologetic” gets thrown around a lot in music writing, but there are few words that better describe the Beaches. When the indie-pop quartet dropped “Blame Brett” in 2023, a song that puts an ex on blast, it quickly went viral and became a festival scream-along, positioning the band as no-holds-barred songwriters. “It was a very jarring experience being called a breakup queen and being seen as someone who had it all together when in reality I was still deeply, deeply in love with my ex and not in a good place mentally,” lead vocalist Jordan Miller recalls, who lives in a drastically different headspace as the band release their third studio album, No Hard Feelings, out today.
Read more: In conversation with Lucy Dacus and Katie Gavin
The Beaches have come a long way since, collecting a whole new throng of fans while continuing to reflect, accept, and revel in their own messiness. Miller, in particular, points to the vibrant anthem “Takes One To Know One,” where, unlike the second verse of “Blame Brett,” she’s prepared to take accountability and work out her problems through therapy. “This song is about exploring my own culpability within the many flawed and complicated romances of my life,” she adds. In the days leading up to its release, the band — completed by Kylie Miller, Eliza Enman-McDaniel, and Leandra Earl — took us through the meaning behind every song on No Hard Feelings, traveling through heartbreak, guilt, and queerness while being unafraid to lean into humor. As the band tell us, they really are the last girls at the party, getting kicked out of Kings of Leon’s Halloween bash in Nashville.
“Can I Call You In The Morning”
This song was inspired by an experience Kylie had at the end of her previous relationship. After a couple of late nights, she would call her ex and spew all of her frustrations regarding their relationship, and then would be immediately apologetic and take it all back. It goes out to all of the chaotic girlies out there.
“Did I Say Too Much”
“Did I Say Too Much” is a song about an experience Leandra had last summer when she fell in love with a girl who was in an open relationship — with a guy. She fell really hard and felt dejected and devastated when the girl didn’t reciprocate those feelings and opted to end things to focus on her other relationship. This song explores the beauty and the pain that she felt at the tail end of that experience.
“Sorry For Your Loss”
“Sorry For Your Loss” was written by Kylie, Leandra, Eliza, and our co-writer Lowell! It’s basically a petty fuck you to all of our exes, who didn’t choose us and who broke our hearts. Big mistake.
“Touch Myself”
This touches on the experiences many of us have had after a bad breakup — that is, the inability to perform self-love because you can’t stop thinking about your ex. It’s a super brutal and often unspoken about thing that happens to so many people after they’ve gone through heartbreak. Writing this one with the extremely talented Justin Tranter was also perfect because they are known for their cheeky masturbation songs, and hadn’t yet broached the subject from this perspective.
“Fine, Let’s Get Married”
This song means a lot to me — it’s about my partner Ryan. I was very hesitant to write about my new relationship, because of how vulnerable and jarring the experience had been on the previous record [Blame My Ex] discussing my breakup. Writing about a breakup is one thing, but talking candidly about the flaws in a relationship that is still ongoing is really scary. But sometimes you get the best art when you’re scared — and that’s why I think this song works so well. Obviously, it doesn’t paint the entire picture of my relationship, but I think it depicts the connection between two complicated people who really love each other.
“Takes One To Know One”
In “Blame Brett,” I have a line in the second verse where I say that I’m not ready for therapy or to take accountability. Well, it’s been a few years since then, and now I am ready to take accountability and commit to therapy. This song is about exploring my own culpability within the many flawed and complicated romances of my life.
“I Wore You Better”
This is such a fun song! We love using a cheeky metaphor, especially one involving fashion, to explore heartbreak — see “T-Shirt” on our first album [Late Show]. It was inspired by Leandra, who was dating a girl with a boyfriend. We thought it would be fun to reference the 2000s fashion magazine trend of “Who wore it better?!” and apply the metaphor to a romantic situation. It’s cheeky, it’s fun, but it’s grounded in an experience of real pain and devastation.
“Dirty Laundry”
There have been many times when people have called us out for being too mean to our exes. This song speaks to our philosophy regarding the discussion about talking candidly about our personal lives. That is, if you date us and are cruel and mean and break our hearts, don’t expect us not to air your dirty laundry. As Taylor Swift once said, “If guys don’t want me to write bad songs about them, they shouldn’t do bad things.”
“Lesbian Of The Year”
“Lesbian Of The Year” is a heartbreakingly beautiful song about Leandra’s experience with coming out later in life. It’s about her ongoing relationship with her queerness and the complicated feelings she has with being put on a pedestal and being seen as a lesbian role model.
“Jocelyn”
I wrote “Jocelyn” about six months after “Blame Brett” first went viral. It was a very jarring experience being called a breakup queen and being seen as someone who had it all together, when in reality I was still deeply, deeply in love with my ex and not in a good place mentally. It’s a song written to the girls, gays, and theys who loved our last record, telling them to not uphold any of us as role models — that ultimately, we’re just a bunch of complicated young women who don’t have ourselves figured out yet.
“Last Girls At The Party”
I mean, I feel like this song speaks for itself. We love a party song. It’s a known thing that when you invite the girls in the Beaches to your party, you’re gonna get trouble, but that there isn’t a party to be had unless we are there. It’s a song that we wrote with our very good friend G Flip, who knows this about us and wanted to help us really bottle that chaos into a perfect party anthem.