Beach Bunny’s Lili Trifilio wasn’t familiar with TikTok until after her song went viral on the video-sharing app last summer. The self-released “Prom Queen,” a protest of Euro-centric beauty standards, has soundtracked hundreds of thousands of TikToks, many of which feature a girl posing in front of a phone camera to illustrate Trifilio’s opening lines: “Shut up, count your calories/I never looked good in mom jeans.” Those lyrics distill the Beach Bunny formula: sentimental and wistful, with a plainspokenness that prompts immediate sympathy. TikTok is better known for surfacing meme-ready rap bangers than indie rock, but Trifilio’s heavyhearted charm struck a nerve.
For almost two years, Trifilio was Beach Bunny’s only member. In 2017, eager to compete in a battle of the bands competition near her home in Chicago, she began putting together a group. On “Prom Queen” and its eponymous 2018 EP, she delivered teen-diary anecdotes in a bright voice that complimented the sticky hooks of her band’s twee-leaning pop-punk. With Beach Bunny’s debut LP, Honeymoon, Trifilio—now 23—levels up from Prom Queen’s wide-eyed stories of heartbreak, though the fears instilled by past romantic blunders continue to creep in. “You stay, you go, you say ‘I’m sorry’/I’m sorry too, for wanting you,” she hollers in “Colorblind.” “I’ll change the channel/I’ve seen this show before.”
Trifilio cites Marina Diamandis as a songwriting inspiration, though Beach Bunny’s sound more often echoes the sun-kissed garage rock of Best Coast or the fired-up power-pop of Charly Bliss. While Prom Queen often luxuriated in grief and resisted the notion of moving on, Honeymoon’s most rewarding moments come when Trifilio swaps the insecurities for a newfound assurance: “If you’re gonna love me, make sure that you do it right,” goes the chorus of early single “Dream Boy.” “Cuffing Season” combines a therapy session and a pep talk as Trifilio’s narrator attempts to remain resolute in a case of “are we, or aren’t we?”
At other times, Honeymoon’s lyricism can feel too slight: “She’s your girl, she’s in all your pictures/California girl, I wish I was her,” Trifilio laments in “Ms. California,” rehashing a tired trope of female jealousy. “But I’m confident when I’m with you… When he calls me pretty, I feel like somebody,” she sings in closer “Cloud 9,” lines that feel superficial even as the insecurities they describe ring true. Thankfully, the rich, surfy melodies help to distract from the weak points.
Like Crazy For You before it, Honeymoon isn’t especially singular or groundbreaking—but Beach Bunny’s raucous spirit means it never goes stale, either. Trifilio excels in straightforward, recognizable experiences of heartache, while still leaving space for listeners to attach their own nuance. Even as we get a little older, Honeymoon suggests, the adolescent anxieties of earlier Beach Bunny songs never fully wane; we just get a little better at handling them. As long as there are heartbreaks and insecurities, albums like this will have purpose.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misstated the number of TikTok videos to feature Beach Bunny’s “Prom Queen.” It has been updated with the correct number.
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