Blame Game (EP)

Blame Game
Cover art of Blame Game: a pink-haired woman plays at a racing-themed arcade machine — showing a car flipping and a heart-shaped cloud — while a blue-haired woman watches.
EP by
Beach Bunny
ReleasedJanuary 15, 2021 (2021-01-15)
RecordedAugust–September 2020[a]
StudioElectrical Audio (Chicago)
Genres
Length13:49
LabelMom + Pop
ProducerJoe Reinhart
Beach Bunny chronology
Honeymoon
(2020)		 Blame Game
(2021)		 Emotional Creature
(2022)
Singles from Blame Game
  1. "Good Girls (Don't Get Used)"
    Released: November 30, 2020

Blame Game is the fifth extended play by American rock band Beach Bunny, released on January 15, 2021 via Mom + Pop Music. It was recorded after the band's tour in support of their debut album, Honeymoon (2020), was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Blame Game is an indie pop and guitar pop EP, covering lyrical themes such as toxic masculinity and sexism. All music was written by frontwoman Lili Trifilio, and it was produced by Joe Reinhart.

Blame Game was supported by one single, "Good Girls (Don't Get Used)", released on November 30, 2020. It received generally positive reviews from music critics, who compared it positively to Honeymoon. The record reached the ninth position on both the US Heatseekers Albums chart and the UK Physical Singles chart.

Background and release

Beach Bunny released their debut studio album Honeymoon in 2020, and planned to embark on an international concert tour in support of the album. However, these plans were cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its ensuing quarantines.[1] According to Lili Trifilio, the frontwoman of Beach Bunny, she had previously begun drafting Blame Game in December 2019.[2] However, the band had not planned on working on the EP, as they had planned to spend the year promoting Honeymoon.[3] Over the following months, she fleshed out the tracks and would send them to the rest of the band.[1][2] However, Trifilio felt that "no one was really thinking about the next project in the moment", and she instead pursued solo projects under the alias Tiger Lili.[1]

The band began to practice together again in the second quarter of 2020.[4] Later that year, Blame Game was recorded at Electrical Audio[5] in August or September.[a] Jon Alvarado described the recording process for Blame Game as being more relaxed than the one for Honeymoon, due to the EP having fewer tracks and the band having greater focus.[9] On November 30, Beach Bunny announced the EP and released "Good Girls (Don't Get Used)" as its lead single.[10] Trifilio explained that releasing "Good Girls (Don't Get Used)" as the lead single "just felt like an obvious choice since the first time we jammed it", citing its high energy and catchy melody.[2] The single was accompanied by a music video directed by Lua Borges and produced by Everybody's Baby.[7] Beach Bunny also performed the track on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on January 13, 2021, in the band's TV debut.[3] Blame Game was released two days later on January 15. A music video for the EP's title track was released on the same day.[11]

Music and lyrics

Blame Game has been described as an indie pop and guitar pop record.[12][13] Caleb Campbell of Under the Radar described the EP's sound as a combination of pop-punk, indie rock, and power pop;[14] Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the EP was sonically reminiscent of That Dog and Paramore.[13] The arrangements on Blame Game were described by Timothy Monger of AllMusic as "crunchy" and "pop-driven".[15] Thematically, Trifilio said that the EP's four songs all shared the same message, being "very angry girl pop, like anti-toxic masculinity".[9] American Songwriter's Madeline Crone and Monger also identified sexism and unstable relationships as overarching themes on the record.[7][15]

"Good Girls (Don't Get Used)" is a power pop track[14] which Trifilio wrote in five minutes.[16] Crone identified it as a "punchy-pop" track with prominent percussion,[7] while Dave Beech of The Line of Best Fit described it as a "snotty and sugary call-to-arms".[12] Jason Lipshutz of Billboard described the lyrics as "dismiss[ing] emotionally unavailable partners",[2] while both Crone and Connor McInerney of Flood instead saw the lyrics as a critique on womanizers.[7][17] McInerney called "Love Sick" a "jangle-pop indebted" track.[17] Campbell highlighted the track's "playful guitar tone switch-ups" and thick bassline. He called it the EP's rawest depiction of how manipulative men can bring about pain, noting how the subject of the song is about the anger felt over lost love rather than the sorrow.[14]

Entertainment Weekly's Eli Enis wrote that the lyrics of "Nice Guys" were blunt in their condemnation of "softboy mind games".[18] McInerney further stated that the lyrics criticized the cliché of men receiving sex through flirting, highlighting the line "You win me like a trophy / Not a consolation prize".[17] Crone noted how its instrumentation demonstrated the band's "sonic growth"; for example, the track includes a guitar line provided by Vaccaro, despite him being a bassist.[7] "Blame Game" is a punk song.[7] It begins with verses exhibiting, as described by Campbell, a "jangly indie pop style",[14] before it takes on the style of a protest chant 80 seconds in.[16] Trifilio explained that the track's themes of sexism, misogyny, and gender norms were things she regularly faced as a woman,[2] and called its writing process therapeutic.[7]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusicStarStarStarStar[15]
Flood Magazine8/10[17]
The Line of Best Fit8.5/10[12]
Under the Radar8.5/10[14]

Blame Game received generally positive reviews from music critics. Several critics compared it to the band's previous album, Honeymoon. Beech and Campbell both described the record as confident and "technicolor", with the former adding that it "takes everything that made [Honeymoon] so irresistible and amps it up".[12][14] Danielle Chelosky of Spin and McInerney took note of the EP's honesty, identifying it as a remnant from Honeymoon. Additionally, both critics found the tone of Blame Game to be more aggressive than their previous album.[16][17] Monger praised Trifilio's optimistic songwriting despite the heavy subject matters and her vocal performance, calling it "another solid entry in the Beach Bunny canon" whether or not it was indicative of the band's future sound.[15]

In the United States, the EP peaked at No. 9 on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart and at No. 63 on its Top Album Sales chart.[19][20] Blame Game also reached No. 9 in the United Kingdom on the Physical Singles chart.[21]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Lili Trifilio.[5]

No.TitleLength
1."Good Girls (Don't Get Used)"3:35
2."Love Sick"3:38
3."Nice Guys"3:02
4."Blame Game"3:34
Total length:13:49

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[5]

Beach Bunny

  • Lili Trifilio – vocals, guitar, songwriting
  • Jon Alvarado – drums
  • Matt Henkels – guitar
  • Anthony Vaccaro – bass

Additional personnel

Charts

Chart performance for Honeymoon
Chart (2020) Peak
position
UK Physical Singles (Official Charts)[21]9
US Top Album Sales (Billboard)[20]63
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard)[19] 9

Notes

  1. 1 2 Sources differ on when Blame Game was recorded. Robin Murray of Clash wrote that the EP was recorded "across one week in August",[6] and American Songwriter's Madeline Crone and Consequence's Wren Graves corroborated the month.[7][8] Lili Trifilio said in an interview for Riot Fest that the EP was recorded in early September,[4] and Adam Lukach of the Chicago Tribune wrote in an article published September 14, 2020 that the band had "recently" returned to the studio.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Lukach, Adam (September 14, 2020). "Chicago's Lili Trifilio of Beach Bunny talks about her solo project". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on August 19, 2025. Retrieved March 16, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Lipshutz, Jason (January 21, 2021). "20 Questions With Beach Bunny: 'Hannah Montana' Memories, Karaoke Must-Haves & Searing New EP". Billboard. Archived from the original on October 20, 2022. Retrieved March 16, 2026.
  3. 1 2 Colburn, Randall (January 13, 2021). "Beach Bunny's Lili Trifilio on turning her "corona angst" into art". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on July 18, 2025. Retrieved March 16, 2026.
  4. 1 2 Robert, Nikki (February 18, 2021). "Lili Trifilio on How Beach Bunny's 'Blame Game' EP Shaped Itself During Quarantine". Riot Fest. Archived from the original on October 15, 2025. Retrieved March 16, 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 Beach Bunny (2021). Blame Game (liner notes). Mom + Pop.
  6. ↑ Murray, Robin (December 1, 2020). "Beach Bunny Confirm New EP 'Blame Game'". Clash. Archived from the original on April 10, 2022. Retrieved March 18, 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Crone, Madeline (January 15, 2021). "Beach Bunny's New EP 'Blame Game' Taps Into Raging Emotions". American Songwriter. Archived from the original on March 29, 2024. Retrieved March 18, 2026.
  8. ↑ Graves, Wren (November 30, 2020). "Beach Bunny Announce New EP Blame Game, Share "Good Girls (Don't Get Used)": Stream". Consequence. Archived from the original on April 13, 2025. Retrieved March 18, 2026.
  9. 1 2 Julious, Brett (January 21, 2021). "Beach Bunny is back, from a 'Kimmel' appearance to a new EP, yet so much is different for the Chicago band". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved March 18, 2026.
  10. ↑ "Beach Bunny Announces Blame Game EP with "Good Girls (Don't Get Used)" - New Single and Video". Mom + Pop Music. November 30, 2020. Archived from the original on December 24, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2025.
  11. ↑ "Beach Bunny Releases 'Blame Game' EP with New Music Video + Late Night TV Debut". Mom + Pop Music. January 15, 2021. Archived from the original on December 24, 2021. Retrieved March 18, 2026.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Beech, Dave (January 15, 2021). "Chicago punks Beach Bunny find the perfect stepping stone to the future". The Line of Best Fit. Archived from the original on March 16, 2025. Retrieved March 21, 2026.
  13. 1 2 Wood, Mikael (January 22, 2021). "Beach Bunny's airborne pop-punk calls out toxic dudes, with irrepressible glee". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 21, 2026. Retrieved March 21, 2026.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Campbell, Caleb (February 2, 2021). "Beach Bunny: Blame Game (Mom + Pop)". Under the Radar. Archived from the original on February 2, 2021. Retrieved March 21, 2026.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Monger, Timothy. "Blame Game Review". AllMusic. Archived from the original on February 6, 2021. Retrieved March 21, 2026.
  16. 1 2 3 Chelosky, Danielle (January 14, 2021). "Beach Bunny Are Not Playing Games". Spin. Archived from the original on March 21, 2026. Retrieved March 21, 2026.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 McInerney, Connor (January 14, 2021). "Beach Bunny, "Blame Game" EP". Flood Magazine. Archived from the original on December 6, 2023. Retrieved March 21, 2026.
  18. ↑ Enis, Eli; et al. (January 15, 2021). "Friday Five: Ashnikko samples Kelis, Flo Milli's Fiddler on the Roof, and more". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved March 21, 2026.
  19. 1 2 "Beach Bunny Chart History (Heatseekers Albums)". Billboard. Archived from the original on December 31, 2022. Retrieved April 5, 2026.
  20. 1 2 "Beach Bunny Chart History (Top Album Sales)". Billboard. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
  21. 1 2 "Official Physical Singles Chart on 13/8/2021". Official Charts Company.
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