Drunk Off Sunshine

Zella Day “Girls”

Zella Day sounds like a very big fan of Lana Del Rey. You can’t get around the Lana in her – it’s in her vocal delivery, it’s in her wry Pinterest-board lyrics, it’s in her melodic phrasing. It’s not a big surprise given that Day has collaborated directly with her in the past, she’s clearly more of a simpatico fellow traveler than a deliberate clone. The interesting thing about “Girls” is that Day takes the LDR aesthetic to a different place by applying it to the sort of chill summer fun song Del Rey often gestures in the general direction of but is too committed to dramatic gloom to ever actually do. “Girls” is very breezy but also slightly off-kilter, just enough to make it clear that the vision of comfort, success, and uncomplicated sexuality communicated in the lyrics is a fantasy or a facade. Of course, the aspirational part of the song is foregrounded right there in the chorus – “girls / I want to be / girls.”

Buy it from Bandcamp.