Zane Roessell on February 16th, 2019

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Massachusetts-bred, L.A.-based trio Potty Mouth drop the velvet hammer again with their latest single “Starry Eyes.” The song, off their forthcoming album “Snafu” (their second full-length and first release since 2015’s self-titled EP) is the Valentine’s Day comedown you wish you had come up on. Channeling the collective ennui of the millennial set, frontwoman Abby Weems waxes, “I feel like I never let myself fall super in love because there’s always a little voice in my head saying ‘what’s the point?’ I’m still so young and have so much I want to do, it doesn’t feel realistic to be fully committed to another person.” Clearly, Potty Mouth has better things to be doing, like penning excellent anti-love anthems.

“Starry Eyes” is songcraft in full-spectrum sadness, yet it’s not until the chorus hits that the pop-punk track truly blooms. Crunching guitars sizzle on the fringes of a shimmering cavern of vocal layers, leaving Weems’ straight-forward delivery as your only lifeline from falling in endlessly. It’s an anthemic, passionately dispassionate approach that endears, easily drawing comparisons to Liz Phair, the Primitives and Heavenly. With a melody so intoxicating in its tragic longing, “Starry Eyes” might just make you fall in love with falling out.

Meanwhile, the Weems-directed video for “Starry Eyes” has all kinds of heavy petting.

“Snafu” is out March 1 via Get Better Records, a label run by Potty Mouth bassist Ally Einbinder and her partner Alex Licktenhour.

||| Watch: The video for “Starry Eyes”

||| Also: Watch the video for “22”

||| Live: Potty Mouth celebrate their album release with a show March 1 at the Factory. They also play the Hi Hat with Spare Parts for Broken Hearts and Dancing Tongues on March 21. Free.