After
Beach Bunny made a big splash with their 2019 album
Honeymoon, which came on the heels of the career-making single "Prom Queen," the band shifted gears from a spunky punk-pop approach to something a little more refined and thoughtful. The group's leader,
Lili Trifilio, felt like maybe they had reached the pinnacle of their chosen sound and wanted to add some new tricks to their repertoire. The
Blame Game EP was a step in that direction, scaling back the guitars and softening the edges just a touch, while still retaining all the dynamite that
Trifilio sets off with her bone-honest lyrics and straight-from-the-heart vocal style.
Emotional Creature takes it another step further from the jumpy punk-pop of earlier records and that much closer to mainstream pop. There are songs that revolve around banks of synthesizers, loads of sweet vocal harmonies, dance-punk interludes, and tempos that creep up on being gentle. That being said, the band and producer
Sean O'Keefe -- who had worked previously with
Fall Out Boy -- retain more than enough of the energy, emotion, and heartbreak of the past, while also making sure to keep enough guitar crunch and zippy dynamics to stop anyone from slipping away. At the core are the songs and vocals of
Trifilio, and she came through with some beautiful words and melodies, sung in an eternally hopeful, always true fashion that is sure to resonate Mariana Trench-deep with anyone who ever felt lost or lonely. If the soaring heartbreak of "Gone" doesn't do it, the grungy growing pains of "Eventually" might. Some tracks take a more indirect approach and leave more melancholy traces: "Karaoke" is achingly beautiful, the kind of scruffy jangle pop ballad
Paul Westerberg would have written if he drank far less beer, and "Gravity" trades guitars for synths and paints a convincing portrait of bedroom-based sci-fi daydreaming. Other tracks just sound like really, really good guitar pop made special by
Trifillo's grace and grit. "Oxygen" is the best of these; it would sound perfect blasting out of the speakers of a middle school roller-skating party as the kids spin weightlessly around the rink. "Love Song" would be the soundtrack for the ride home when those lucky enough to do some sweaty hand-holding need to hear something sweet and soft.
Emotional Creature is a big step forward for the band. The slight adjustments the group made musically only help the songs land with more precision and impact. Rushing through in a cloud of distortion and broken snares is fine, but a little subtlety goes a long way to making a band stick around longer.
Beach Bunny and
Lili Trifilio seem built for the long run, and it will be fascinating to listen to them grow. ~ Tim Sendra