No Hard Feelings

“Heartbreak, gold mine,” Jordan Miller sings at the start of “Touch Myself”, a paean to irrepressible desire that appears partway through The Beaches’ third full-length album. And with those three words, she provides a perfectly succinct snapshot of The Beaches’ trajectory since 2023, when the viral post-breakup anthem “Blame Brett” thrust the Toronto band into the Top 40 pop charts on both sides of the border. With <i>No Hard Feelings</i>, The Beaches continue to navigate the emotional minefield of young-adult love with their sense of humour and candour intact. But if their early releases saw them rocking out with ’70s glam swagger, <i>No Hard Feelings</i> casts their fine-tuned pop sensibilities in an ’80s goth romanticism, with the shimmering guitars and yearning hooks of tracks like “Touch Myself” and “I Wore You Better” hitting the heretofore untapped sweet spot between Robert Smith and Taylor Swift. And where The Beaches’ breakout single was about trying to move on from a relationship, <i>No Hard Feelings</i>’ emotional centrepiece—the synthy soft-rock stunner “Lesbian of the Year”—is a bittersweet account of leaving your past behind completely, with Miller giving voice to keyboardist/guitarist Leandra Earl’s experience of coming out. This deluxe edition of the album features a piano- and string-assisted new take on the track alongside more pin-sharp pop anthems navigating fraught romance and, on the crowd-pleasing “Perfect 10”, a self-absorbed narcissist. “Of course you’re dating Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter/I’m sorry but you are just another narcissist that wants everyone to like ya,” sings Miller in one of its best put-downs. “Roll up, not everyone’s obsessed.”