Beach Bunny’s sophomore LP, Tunnel Vision, is a playful but poignant return to form for the Chicago trio. The album comes three years after Emotional Creature, which saw the group take slight pivots away from the bubbly, intergalactic pop sounds that first landed them amongst the indie stars where they now comfortably float. Early hits like “Prom Queen” have gone RIAA Platinum since Emotional Creature’s release. Writing a slam-dunk third record is a welcome but not surprising next step for the band.
Lead singer and guitarist Lili Trifilio has opened up about the severe writer’s block she faced during the early stages of the album. Trifilio tried writing alone, turning to her bandmates for inspiration, but remained stuck. A writer’s workshop in Los Angeles provided the songwriter with the toolkit required to craft what would become the equal parts fun and shimmering, yet existential and contemplative Tunnel Vision.
The album tackles topics as insular as artistic struggles and macro-issues like the horrors being faced by the world at large. Relatable tales of everyday woes find their way into beautiful pop punky hooks, like on “Just Around the Corner,” where Trifilio speaks on a friend’s financial anxiety. The simple subject matter uses the mundane as a playground for self-exploration. The group returned to their signature ’90s indie guitars, strong choruses and urgent drum arrangements with Trifilio’s new outlook on writing and her place in the world. The result is a confident, focused body of tracks.
Beach Bunny kicked off their Tunnel Vision Tour in April with that same assuredness. Shows continue through summer across the US with support from Pool Kids, Scarlet Demore and Jayla Kai. Below, Beach Bunny sits down with PAPER to break down Tunnel Vision track by track.
“Mr. Predictable”
I wrote this about my personal adversity to change, wanting life to be consistent and predictable, and facing the reality that despite this internal resistance, life is always changing.
“Big Pink Bubble”
This track is ultimately about wanting to protect your inner peace. The lyrics investigate keeping this peace through a false sense of control. Carefully curating your personality and conversations in an effort to stay in your lane and stay out of trouble.
“Chasm”
This is a song about contemplating the different versions of oneself: Which are adequate? Is the future destined for failure? Am I the same girl I was before? Are we just animals at the end of day? Can we fight our shadows in an ever-darkening world? I have a tendency to not really live in the present moment, and I was reflecting on all of that, and whether I’m operating on instincts or a fear of the unknown.
“Tunnel Vision“
The title track is about how debilitating it is to be indecisive. Exploring a mixture of a quarter-life crisis and the complexity of everyday choices. The future holds a heavy weight over the entire track. Can we ever really know if we’re making the best choice for us?
“Clueless“
This is a contemplative song exploring the themes of time and growing up. Its message is not positive, negative, or indifferent, but rather all-encompassing. The track leans heavily on nostalgia while also reminding the audience that not all changes are bad. Growing up is complicated, as are the emotions expressed in this song. It took me five minutes to write; in a lot of ways, it wrote itself.
“Pixie Cut“
This track describes the burden of being a chronic over-thinker. Despite creating a routine and systems to cope, we’re never truly in control of outside circumstances. The song yearns for silence, presence, and a departure from the excessive chattering of the mind.
“Vertigo“
People always ask me “Where are the sad girl anthems?” but I’m on a journey of self awareness so ergo a bop about self sabotage, jealousy, comparison and generally spiraling (classic). I wrote this on an airplane in my head and tried to demo it in the bathroom very sneakily but airplane bathrooms are super loud, so as to not forget how it went since the audio was trash I sang it in my head for the entire duration of a four-hour flight.
“Violence“
This song explores the darkness, overt violence, and tragedy we’re witnessing on a daily basis, such as environmental catastrophe and genocide overseas. The track cultivates a feeling of despair and hopelessness, a reflection on the unfortunate nature of mankind, an existential dread for the future not of oneself but of the planet and humanity.
“Just Around the Corner“
This track is about the death of the American dream. It was inspired by witnessing everyone around me struggling mentally, financially, and psychologically with the current state of the world.
The impact of social media and the influx of 24/7 news, the financial burdens of younger folks living paycheck to paycheck, and the consistent violence all around us play into the narrative of the song.
The track is an experience of betrayal and disappointment. It is not telling the listener they can’t do something, but rather, shaming those for creating a broken system and continuing a pattern of violence, greed and power.
“Cycles“
This track is an older piece made new; I released the original version in 2019 under my own name. It explores the dullness of social expectations and how easy it is to lose yourself in them. The song emphasizes a feeling of exhaustion around settling for less than what you deserve and begs the listener to consider their own free will.
Photography: Alec Basse