“Blame Brett” by The Beaches, Monday, September 25, 2023

The Beaches are a Canadian indie rock band from Toronto, Ontario. The band consists of sisters Jordan and Kylie Miller, Leandra Earl, and Eliza Enman-McDaniel. They have released two studio albums The Late Show in 2017 and Blame Ex this year. The band has been praised for their catchy hooks, energetic live shows, and feminist lyrics. The band, originally named Done with Dolls, came to fame in Canada when they performed the theme to the teen drama Really Me in 2011. The band evolved into more of a rock sound with the addition of guitarist Leandra Earl. The band has had two number 1 songs on Canadian Rock radio, “T-Shirt” from The Late Show and “Blame Brett” from their latest record.

I’M DONE DATING ROCKSTARS. The Beaches have been included on a number of Spotify playlists, growing their listenership outside of Canada, the only country in which they have charted. Their sophomore and self-released record Blame My Ex offers summertime vibes punctuated with breezy guitars. Lead singer Jordan Miller's cheeky lyrics delivered with vocals somewhere between The Bangles, Pretenders, Blondie, or The Motels make the album instantly catchier than their first effort The Late Show. The lead single and first song on the record from which the title Blame My Ex comes, “Blame Brett,” has over 15 million streams. Lyrically the song hides under an almost surf rock summer sound. But once a listener hears or reads the lyrics, the song gets even more interesting. 

I’LL BECOME AN ASSHOLE DISGUISED AS A BAD GIRL. Lead singer of The Beaches Jordan Miller dated Brett Emmons, lead singer of the band the Glorious Sons, a band they toured with. Miller declares “I’m done dating rock stars / From now on only actors / Tall boys in the [Toronto] Raptors.” But Blame My Ex and its first track “Blame Brett” are not exactly straightforward break-up songs demonizing the singer of the other band. Miller explains, “ It’s not really about my relationship. It’s about feeling vulnerable and afraid to open your heart to someone new. I’m basically talking to my future partners, explaining that I can only offer something casual while my heart heals—a song for all the hot messes out there” she told Hype Magazine. Maybe there are hard feelings, but pinning the speaker’s new casual attitude toward sex and dating on her ex-boyfriend both skirts responsibility in a rockstar fashion but also gives the speaker liberation to experience the good and the bad of casual dating. It’s so easy for us to blame our choices after something traumatic like a breakup on the one who hurt us, but “Blame Brett” seems to have a speaker who is aware of this fact. She’s out to make her own mistakes, and if others are going to judge her, she just pins it on the “guy who hurt her.” But there’s one other element to this narrative that should be addressed. If a man wrote this song and said, “Blame Jordan, my Ex,” talking about getting back out there and enjoying casual relationships, culturally he would receive less judgment. What about the horrible things that Ted Mosby did in How I Met Your Mother grieving the loss of the one he thought was right? Barney tells him to go have a night out; sleep around; take some time off before getting back to the search for Mrs. Mosby. “Blame Brett” is a powerful anthem of liberation--the speaker even gives a disclaimer in the lyrics that “I’m only gonna treat you bad” and that she’s “only in it for the sex.” So this song is not for the faint of heart.

Read the lyrics on Genius.