The Beaches are back with “My People”
The Beaches are back with “My People”. Following “Orpheus” and summer anthem “Grow Up Tomorrow”, their newest release continues to move The Beaches along in a different musical direction. They have not broken with their rock roots, but are growing and spreading in their own direction. Their newer music has a looser musical feel to it with different influences than their previous work. It seems less strict with the band being more open to different ideas and growing their sound. I love The Beaches' old and new music and it’s exciting to see how they’re growing musically.
“My People” follows the theme of being young, dumb, and broke in a big city while keeping to The Beaches' alt rock sound with an enticing guitar riff, stirring bass line, and punchy drums.
The first line of the song sets the scene for the city life that The Beaches are singing about. “I live up above of a McDonald's”. Being broke is no object as The Beaches resign to other methods to continue their lifestyle “If I’m broke, I’ll just do a GoFundMe”. Hitting on what city life is like for the young and broke, vocalist Jojo Miller sings about enjoying the gritty life despite living off of bodega food and just scraping by. “All I know is I'm enjoying this”.
As a New Yorker, this song hits home. Big cities are typically glamorized in the media. Rom coms have a main character that miraculously has a penthouse apartment with a journalist salary. The reality of being young and broke is not glamorous and I love that The Beaches broke that mirage. IRL, that rom com journalist is living above a McDonald’s and eating bodega food 24/7.
In spite of the struggles that come with big city living, I still love New York. When I took a vacation to Nashville (still a city, but much smaller), I found myself missing all the stuff that people hate about New York. Weirdly, pigeons were at the top of my list. The Beaches nail that complicated feeling of enjoying the struggle life. There is a certain feeling that comes with living in a city that you can’t get elsewhere. “All I know is I'm enjoying this”.