I wrote about Girlhouse’s hazy sun-kissed sound last year upon the release of her single Happy Now, and Cool Guy is cut from the same cloth. Having garnered Radio 1 and 6Music airplay with recent single paul blart mall cop, Girlhouse, real name Lauren Luiz, now has her sights set on another forthcoming EP, appropriately titled the third ep.
On Cool Guy, Girlhouse continues to channel the likes of Phoebe Bridgers and Soccer Mommy, but with just a touch of the polish of post-Folklore Taylor Swift.
Somewhat universally relatable in its theme, albeit to anyone who isn’t the kind of person the song depicts, Cool Guy is a song about those who live with a sense of aloof detachment and privilege. The song’s sound and production treatment fits that theme perfectly — the gradual pace and glossy sheen hits like a musical slow clap. Describing the song’s inspiration, Luiz says:
“The term ‘cool guying’ means to acquire a slight amount of clout and become a complete weirdo. I wrote this with my friend Mark Campbell when I was feeling a lil zesty about some of the clouty people in my life. In all seriousness, no shade on them, I just had to figure out if that was of value to me. I had an ex that got mad at me for calling him ‘cool’ and that was really confusing to me until he ended up actually being very very ‘cool.’”
Cool Guy plays into the broader themes of the forthcoming the third ep, as Luiz describes:
“I split this ep in two acts. The first act follows the euphoria of avoidance, doing everything to detach from all feeling while playing house. The back half is meant to snap you into reality with darker sounds and themes, I talk about losing friendships not only to death but also to the flow of life, and I try to be more vulnerable with the person I love and ask them straight up, “please don’t stop loving me”. The theme of this ep is really about coming to grips with reality and the growing pain that comes with it. I hope you like listening to this train wreck as much as I liked writing it.”
Check out Cool Guy below: