The Fat Angel Sings

The growing notoriety and the conception of Beach Bunny’s debut album, “Honeymoon” this Bunny is a Chicago based pop band led by Lili Trifilio, who just graduated from DePaul University. After recently being signed to Mom+Pop Records, whose roster includes Courtney Barnett and Flume, the band released their first studio album, Honeymoon, on Valentine’s Day. During these years she has recorded several projects, found bandmates, toured and played Riot Fest and Lollapalooza, become verified on social media, signed to a major label and gained almost two million monthly listeners on Spotify – yet she remains incredibly humble. Although her bright purple hair and permanent warm smile stand out in a crowd, unless she’s on DePaul’s campus, one wouldn’t know that she is about to blow up into a major pop star.

This cover of a 100 gecs crossover status update: Their songs are being covered in whimsical fashion by pop-punk bands. This is a great thing.

From start to finish, Honeymoon is the bookends to a relationship – the highs of a new beginning and the lows of an unwanted end. But with each song there is a chapter filled with words any lover could highlight, with enough margin space to attach our own memories and feelings.

The album opens up with “Promises” – a song about the lack of closure post-break up. In the following track, “Cuffing Season,” themes smoothly form from these unresolved problems, resulting in the idea of commitment sounding impossible after heartbreak. Even with Trifilio’s trust issues, a motif listeners have heard before in her older tracks, Honeymoon comes with a new sense of ressaurance. Trifilio experiments with new vocal melodies and sounds confident. She is validating her own feelings and sings about setting boundaries.

Halfway through the album, “Rearview” slows things down and focuses on Trifilio’s voice and solo guitar. The band enters at the back end of the song with a thematic build up into the drums emphasizing her lyric, “I hate it when you catch me crying.” “Racetrack” is another minimal track that tugs on nostalgia with its music box-esque piano. The album ends on a high note with  “Cloud 9” – a pop banger that reveals the freedom and euphoria that can come from a happy and healthy relationship. The final words are, “You will always be my favorite form of loving.”