Canadian quintet The Beaches delve into their wonderful new record, No Hard Feelings, track-by-track.
One of Canada’s biggest current musical exports, four-piece indie rock band The Beaches are masters of walking the line between deep emotional depth and playful potency. Across the last decade, they’ve produced plenty of sing-along highs and thoughtful quieter moments, and this new record is emblematic of their eclectic appeal.
No Hard Feelings is an amalgamation of everything that’s good about The Beaches. Soaring choruses, effortless chemistry, arena-filling compositions. It’s a confident and colourful body of music that positions that band ever close to the apex of the contemporary rock revivial. So how did they do it? The girls tell Wonderland all about it in our latest track-by-track.
Listen to the album…
Read the track-by-track…
“Can I Call You In The Morning”
Kylie: “Can I Call You In The Morning” is the opening song on No Hard Feelings which we all agreed was the only way to do it. It has a super fun and moody tone to it that perfectly captures the sound of the album. Basically the song is like about a huge blow up after repressing emotions for so long, and then lashing out and apologizing and getting stuck in that spiral. This song is about my ex 🙂 OOPS sorry.
“Did I Say Too Much”
Leandra: We wrote this one in the throes of my breakup when I was feeling everything from anger (“what the f*ck is wrong with you?!) to yearning and heartbreak (“I really thought this time I found someone”). It’s about the internal struggles of falling in love with a girl in an open relationship and really just begging for her heart while feeling like I’ve said too much.
“Sorry For Your Loss”
Leandra: This one is kind of just each of us standing up for ourselves with an ex who has wronged us in the past. I feel like we all have at least one who we let walk all over us or not handle our hearts with care and just ignored the red flags. Sometimes you have to just feel sorry for an ex who lost such a good love and partner in you.
“Touch Myself”
Leandra: On our way to a session with Justin Tranter I was telling Jordan and Kylie that since my breakup I had found it difficult to ~touch myself~ without thinking of my ex and instantly crying or becoming depressed, so I had stopped altogether. That is UNTIL I had a sexy little confusing dream about Jeremy Allen White that got me thinking and feeling again. Yes, chef.
“Fine, Let’s Get Married”
Jordan: “Fine, Let’s Get Married”, is a song I wrote about my boyfriend Ryan when we were going through a bit of a rough patch. It’s about that frustrating feeling that two people who are in a long term relationship can sometimes have when you’re not sure whether to roll your eyes at each other, or to have sex forever. It’s silly and hyperbolic but also super relatable.
“Takes One To Know One”
Eliza: Takes one to know one is a cheeky silly song about us ultimately taking some accountability in the messy partners we choose. In classic Beaches fashion we pull from actual messy things us and our partners have done in the past.
“Wore You Better”
Jordan: This song is a cheeky metaphor for heartbreak & a reference to the 2000s fashion magazine trend of “who wore it better?!”.
“Dirty Laundry””
Kylie: “Dirty Laundry” is one of our fave songs on the album. We wrote this one with our good friend DCF and it was incredible to just vibe out in the studio with him. This song is about again being stuck in a relationship that’s not serving you, and not accepting it. Everyone should be airing out their shitty ex boyfriend’s dirty laundry in my opinion. Watch your backs!!!
“Lesbian Of The Year”
Leandra: This one tears at the heartstrings because we wrote it from a deeply personal part of my experience coming out later in life. My queerness has come with shame, pressure, acceptance, sadness, celebration and SO much joy and like everyone else in the community, I’m just navigating through and doing my best to uplift others.
“Jocelyn”
Jordan: One of the first songs we wrote for this record was our song “Jocelyn”. We wanted to write a song about the jarring experience of getting kind of famous for being “breakup queens”, while secretly still being in love with our exes . We’re basically saying to our fans hey, we’re just as messed up as you, please don’t put us on pedestals.
“Last Girls at the Party”
Leandra: Pretty self explanatory – if you know us or have hung out with us you know that we love a good party and we’ll likely be the last to leave a good party. We’re in our prime, let a girl LIVE. It’s only 8, right?
