While you lay awake replaying every awkward thing you said on your date that night, give “Facetime After Sex” by girlhouse a spin. As she chronicles the cringe-worthy experiences she’s had with online dating, you won’t feel so alone, and you’ll likely walk away thinking maybe you weren’t so weird after all.
This indie pop rock tune is a tongue-in-cheek commentary on her own experiences using dating apps in her early 20s. Its nostalgic instrumentation and humorous lyrics showcase a newfound appreciation for those experiences– not necessarily wanting them back, but recognizing how good of stories they make and how they taught her what she knows now.
While looking back on one’s dating life can be filled with regret and maybe even a bit of sadness, “Facetime After Sex” is anything but melancholy. Backing the lyrics is a lush, wistful synth similar to that of Malibu 1992 by COIN. Her voice is layered with multiple vocal tracks, creating an all-encompassing, hypnotic effect like getting lost in your own thoughts and daydreams.To add to it, she echoes “la la la”’s with longing sighs between the verses, poking fun at the way we romanticize the most laughable things while dating. Towards the end, we have a dreamy guitar solo that sounds straight off an 80s romance soundtrack. Together, this song is an honest reflection of all the emotions that come with dating as a young adult. It’s simultaneously romantic, sarcastic, and dreamy– think Phoebe Bridgers with a Men I Trust groove.
"I wanted FaceTime after Sex to feel as nostalgic as this story is for me. My early 20s were filled with lots of searching for love on the apps (tinder, bumble, etc) right at the beginning of that kind of online dating. Wow. What a time,” Luiz writes. The types of things people used to say on dates, mostly coming from me, still haunt my dreams. I have some friends that have actually met their current partners on the apps so I know it’s not all bad but for me it was nothing but top tier awkwardness. This song is about a few men I met along my journey to get off of the apps and why I tolerated the shit that I went through."
A track on “the third ep”, “Facetime After Sex” is a major highlight on the collection. Despite its sarcastic overtones, it’s actually one of the more sentimental tracks on the record. It shows the ability to look back at one’s experiences and laugh rather than cringe, something we could all stand to do every once in a while.
Lauren Luiz, aka girlhouse, is no stranger to show business. She began her acting career in her early twenties in NBC’s hit series Grimm, following her heart shortly after to Los Angeles in 2013 where she landed a role in Spring Awakening. Such an experience brought her to The White House, Broadway, and even The Seth Meyers Show. She later went on to form folk-pop group WILD, which garnered over 50 million streams. Now, she’s channeling her musical creativity in new ways under “girlhouse.” Her debut EP was met with critical acclaim from a wide array of music critics and publications. Her latest installment, “the third ep”, is out now.
Written by Jess Ward