PWR BTTM's New Single: 'When You are Queer, You are Always 19'

PWR BTTM are gearing up to release their new album, Pageant, on May 12. The New York-based queer outfit has already appeased our hungry appetites with two singles: "Big Beautiful Day" and "Answer My Text." Today, they've shared yet another, called "LOL."

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The brief sub-three minute track is a tender declaration of singer Ben Hopkins' romantic naivete--it begins soft and fragile, before eventually erupting into a giant thrashing rock ballad. Unlike their previous Pageant singles, "LOL" sees PWR BTTM exploring more serious storytelling and wrestling with bittersweet, complex queer love.

"I know that I am naive," Hopkins softly coos, as an aloof opera singer bellows in the background. "When you are queer, you are always 19 / I didn't know you could take such a shape."

On Facebook, Hopkins wrote that "LOL" is a song about trying to understand and grow up--reconciling who you wish you were with who you can't help being. "Sometimes you try as hard [as] you can to do those things and you fail," he wrote. "You fucking fail really, really hard. So hard that you have to give yourself a break and just laugh about how hard and weird things can be; about how no matter how secure you think you are deep down, there's a part of us all [that] feels like they're doing everything for the first time."

Listen to PWR BTTM's "LOL," below, paired with a simple video by Mary Shyne.