The Beaches: No Hard Feelings
Some of the best pop-rock albums make you dance even when it gets deeply emotional. If you’ve ever found yourself dancing at a concert with tears streaming down your cheeks, you know the feeling. And if you haven’t, The Beaches’ new album ‘No Hard Feelings’ is your invitation to experience it for the first time.
After their second album ‘Blame My Ex’ cemented the Canadian band’s reputation for witty lyrics paired with catchy rhythms, hopes were high for their third release just two years later. And they did not disappoint. The quartet, sisters Jordan Miller (vocals, bass) and Kylie Miller (guitar), along with friends Leandra Earl (guitar, keys) and Eliza Enman-McDaniel (drums), set out to deliver not just music, but a full experience. Their tight instrumentation drives captivating melodies while underlining the emotionally complex, often sarcastic lyrics. And every time, Jordan Miller’s vocals bring it all home.
Starting off strong with ‘Can I Call You in the Morning?’, the band immediately proves they are more than just a generic pop group you remember by catchy lyrics only. Musically, the dissonance between deep and high notes works perfectly with the emotion being shared with the listener. From frustration and anger to sadness, the ringing high tones in the background feel like the ringing in your head at high points of emotion or the jarring ring of a phone. Miller’s desperate, regretful voice does the rest, pulling you all the way in.
The second song on the album, ‘Did I Say Too Much’, immediately gets you dancing. Sardonic in its lyrics, it never loses the appeal of a pop anthem. Asking, ‘Did I jump the gun? I really thought this time I’d found someone’, in its cheerful chorus highlights the dichotomy The Beaches capture so well. Even at its darkest moments, the album remains palatable and entertaining. You can picture yourself howling and screaming the lyrics back at the band, moving and sweating in the crowd. Yet they still manage to deliver that same energy through your headphones, your home sound system or even the tinny speaker of your phone.
From then on that feeling never truly subsides. On ‘Touch Yourself’ the band shows that the best way to build on emotions is to let it slowly come to you. Both instrumentally and vocally they work up to the passionate chorus, making it feel explosive and monumental. This could be jarring, if it were not for the fact that even the slower parts are accompanied by tight drum beats. It is obvious the band knows where to straddle the line.
And straddle the line they do — the album remains humorous, its lyrics as wry as ever, with Miller even calling herself ‘anti-social, maladjusted, noncommittal, can’t be trusted’, while never letting the liveliness slip. Secret shameful thoughts, destructive behaviour and tragic love stand in juxtaposition to jaunty riffs, danceable beats and powerful vocals. A party before the inevitable train crash.
And the crash comes in the second-to-last song ‘Jocelyn’, a surprisingly somber ending to a story told in an album that feels more like a therapy session than just simply a musical work. ‘I headlined at the Troubadour and wondered who they came here for’ concludes the inevitable loss of self-esteem through all the hardship revealed in the preceding songs.
But is it really the end? The Beaches definitely didn’t think so. With one last song on offer they prove that after every fall comes a moment of getting back up. And no matter what, they promise to be the ‘Last Girls at the Party’.
‘No hard feelings. We’re not leaving.’ Indeed — and it feels like a promise.