Blame is the name of the game in alternative pop group Beach Bunny’s latest EP. The group rose to a state of prominence when their song “Prom Queen” took off on social media app TikTok. Like much of their work, the lyrics speak to more pressing societal issues while being backed with a generally upbeat music. In this instance, the band tackles the heavy topic of victim blaming; in their own words, they describe their latest EP as a theoretical conversation that occurs between “a femme person and society, criticizing the hypocrisy of the demands placed on women.” The four songs catalogue the exasperation the singer, Lili Trifilio, feels with victim blaming in society.
The EP opens with “Good Girls (Don’t Get Used).” With its upbeat tempo and chords, it would be easy to catalogue this as a happy pop song until listening closely to the lyrics. In Trifilio’s own words, she is speaking to “players” and showing them that “poor communication […] [is] immature.” She directly addresses them in the chorus, telling them “You’re not a ghost / I’m not afraid of you.”
The following song is entitled “Love Sick.” It follows the first song with its upbeat tempo and cutting lyrics. It is perhaps the most introspective of the four songs, delving into Trifilio’s own struggles with relationship ups and downs, how she is “Hiding from my own emotions / Terrified of letting someone in,” and, as the title might suggest, “sick of love.”
Next in the lineup is “Nice Guys.” It begins a bit slower than its predecessors; it is not as openly pop-centered as the first two songs, the strong guitar giving it a punk edge. This song takes on the issue of men feeling that they deserve something in return for being nice to women. In the chorus, Trifilio cries out, “I’m sick of nice guys / I want someone who actually wears hearts inside their eyes,” encapsulating how frustrated she is with the disingenuity from those with ulterior motives who only view her as “a consolation prize.”
Closing out the EP is the titular song “Blame Game.” It is perhaps the most frustrated in tone of the four songs. Like the three songs before it, Trifilio is constantly ensuring the listener is aware of the pressures put on women in society; however, she clearly does not believe that women deserve the blame they receive. Instead she encourages society to “teach them why they shouldn’t do this / ‘stead of telling us to hide.” Amidst this is Trifilio’s own defiance against society’s standards: “I’ll be caught dead saying / Guess it’s my fault my body’s fun to stare at.”
