# With A Wink And A Smile, BEST EX Promises To Ruin Your Life

- Link: https://www.nyrdcast.com/with-a-wink-and-a-smile-best-ex-promises-to-ruin-your-life/
- Published: 2023-08-11T09:00:00-05:00
- Author: Eugene Tierney

“_Good at Feeling Bad_ exemplifies what pop does so well. It latches the listener’s
emotions onto catchy melodies, granting them respite from the world that won’t stop
for anyone’s heartache.” – **Exclaim!**

“At the intersection of modern pop and dance exists a reality that is much more 
fun, a new melancholy much boppier, a world delightful—something like Best Ex’s 
new record _Good At Feeling Bad_.” – **Earmilk**

“Best Ex have found a way to embrace change — and this poppy positioning might just
be Loveland’s perfect fit.” – **Alternative Press**

“The songwriting has always been strong, but with the new EP _Good at Feeling Bad_,
Best Ex has positioned itself in a place to be in between indie elite, and teenage
pop playlists.” – **Houston Chronicle**

### **With A Wink And A Smile**⏎ **best ex****Promises To Ruin Your Life**

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#### **Debut Album **󠀁[**_With A Smile_**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=75f23c5266&e=615f2b8493)󠁿** Out October 6, 2023** ⏎ **_via_ Iodine Recordings/Alcopop! Records**

#### **“󠀁[I Promise To Ruin Your Life](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=2e050a6f76&e=615f2b8493)󠁿” Out Today**

**AUGUST 10, 2023 (NEW YORK CITY, NY) – **“I feel way more excited than nervous.
To be totally honest, this is the only thing I have ever wanted,” says **Mariel 
Loveland** of NYC-based indie-pop band **Best Ex **about the announcement of her
debut album [**_With A Smile_**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=5eb7c1f8ce&e=615f2b8493)_****_(
out on **October 6, 2023** on **Iodine Recordings/Alcopop! Records**). 

[⌊Best Ex single cover⌉⌊Best Ex single cover⌉[

**“I Promise To Ruin Your Life” Single Artwork**

“So many times, when I feel like I’m flailing around with no direction, the universe
seems to give me exactly what I need. In this case, the month I was getting ready
to think about recording a new single, Iodine Records randomly reached out to me
and asked if I wanted to make an album.

“I honestly had been feeling like I may never get the opportunity to make a full
length on my own—especially with how much the industry has changed since I made 
music with Candy Hearts. Of course, I said ‘ABSOLUTELY YES.’ It feels like the world
is giving me a second chance, and I hope fans will too.”

This second single off the album, the bouncy tongue-in-cheek “[**I Promise To Ruin Your Life**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=5c9d29e2af&e=615f2b8493),”
is about having “innocent little crushes” which she says fuels her during bouts 
of creative ennui. “I write so many songs about heartbreak, but this time around,
I just wanted to write something about that light, hopeful feeling of meeting a 
stranger you just absolutely adore.”

I Promise To Ruin Your Life

[⌊I Promise To Ruin Your Life⌉⌊I Promise To Ruin Your Life⌉
Watch this video on 
YouTube

Recalling those anxiety-inducing butterflies where you want to “peel your eyelids
open at 3am because you don’t want the day to end,” she adds, “I also wanted this
song to be a bit of a nod to my previous work with Candy Hearts. I referenced the
song ‘All The Ways You Let Me Down’ in the lyric ‘_I know how this ends / we won’t
be speaking / I’ll add you to the list of things that let me down_.’ I wanted to
give a nod to all the places my career has taken me. I really value those years,
and my album didn’t feel complete without reflecting on that.”

The follow-up to Best Ex’s 2020 sophomore EP _**Good At Feeling Bad**_, _With A 
Smile_ marks a dramatic life change that forced her to re-examine her life. “I honestly
feel like I entered the Covid lockdowns a girl and came out a woman—but maybe that’s
the trauma of enduring an entire pandemic that really forced me to sit down and 
reflect on my life (a silver lining, for sure),” she explains. Navigating that intersection
of life as an unlucky-at-dating single woman living in Brooklyn with roommates and
a continual ceiling leak, she started writing the album but felt like she was missing
an anchor to hold her creativity in place.

[⌊Mariel Loveland of Best Ex⌉⌊Mariel Loveland of Best Ex⌉[

**Mariel Loveland of BEST EX**

“I always struggled with periods of high anxiety, but I started getting panic attacks
that only got worse as the pandemic continued.” But life threw her some pivotal 
events that gave her balance and foundation. “I feel like I’ve aged a decade in 
three short years, and I think that’s all reflected on the album,” she realizes.“
I met my husband, moved in with him almost instantly. We eloped. I became an aunt.
I lost my grandma. I was diagnosed with OCD. When I listen, I literally hear myself
coming of age.”

The first single off the album,** **“[**Tell Your Friends**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=91f7fa4c69&e=615f2b8493),”
is a bright yet somber waltzy track that speaks on society’s way of telling women
that they are “too much,” especially in relationships. Likewise, she says she wrote
the album’s melancholic title track (“**With A Smile**”) about the time period she
felt part of her was “too much” of everything, “Too annoying, too damaged, and too
hard to love. That a fake smile would make [her] more tolerable. That if [she] could
need less, people would want [her] around more.” 

Similar to the themes on the aforementioned tracks**, **the album as a whole speaks
about the ways in which society dictates that a woman should smile. “We’re expected
to be a million things, but one of those is always pleasant in public,” she says.

“We’re supposed to suck up our issues with our mental health (lest we get labeled
hysterical or over-emotional). We’re expected to shrug off the injustices we see
in the world. We’re expected to smile through our own abuse and never say a word.
And of course, sometimes we smile for good reason. We fall in love, people make 
us laugh, the sunshine in the summer feels healing. Good things do happen, there
is still beauty in the world. I’m not a total cynic, I’m just an exhausted introvert.”

Elsewhere on the album the R&B infused “**Cut Me Out**” speaks on the painful losses
of female camaraderie, while the breezy “**Salt On Skin**” feels like NYC in July—“
really thick and soupy but also with the lightness of summer” — all thanks to getting
a helping hand on harmonies and a guitar hook after a chance encounter when sitting
next to another songwriter at a wedding in Mexico.

The song that ultimately means the most to her on the album, though, is the optimistic“**
Joyride**,” a song about meeting her husband and how prior to meeting him she was
super cynical about love and even to this day doesn’t believe in soulmates or true
love; she believes that love is a choice – but meeting him nearly shattered her 
way of thinking.

“The more I got to know him, the more it felt like our lives had moved in parallels,
like the universe kept him on the sidelines waiting for the moment when it would
work out.” 

[⌊Best Ex album cover⌉⌊Best Ex album cover⌉[

_**With A Smile**_**
Album Artwork

_**With A Smile**_

**Tracklist:**
1. With a Smile2. [Tell Your Friends](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=aabd7f9601&e=615f2b8493)
3. Give Me a Break4. Salt On Skin5. [I Promise To Ruin Your Life](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=4714188377&e=615f2b8493)
6. Stay With Me7. Die For You8. Cut Me Out9. What The Hell10. Joyride (Glad You 
Found Me)11. The End12. Daylight

While most of the album was recorded in Brooklyn with her friend **Andy Tongren **(_**
Young Rising Sons**_), the last song, “**Daylight,**” was recorded with **Gary Cioni**(_**
Crime in Stereo, Daytrader, Royal Psalms**_) of **Sound Acres Studio** near Philadelphia
and it’s a modern take of an early aughts indie record (_a la _Bright Eyes, Rilo
Kiley, Death Cab for Cutie). She says the themes of which focus on the juxtaposition
of life: “anxiety, OCD, womanhood, falling in love, and self-doubt.”

Living in the shadow of NYC in Northern New Jersey, Mariel Loveland got her start
battling it out in the rough and tumble suburban scene with her nostalgia-tinged
punk outfit **Candy Hearts **in 2010. Within two short years, she went from playing
basements across the East Coast to sharing the stage with pop punk heavyweights 
like **Man Overboard,** **New Found Glory** and **Weezer**.

After a final stint on **Vans Warped Tour** in 2015, she adopted the moniker **Best
Ex**, trading energetic guitars for fuzzed-out synths, dreamy acoustics and a melodic
sweet tooth that rivaled Carly Rae Jepson’s or Sky Ferreira’s. Loveland’s previous
two EPs—**_Ice Cream Anti-Social _**(2017) and **_Good At Feeling Bad_** (2020)—
were met with critical acclaim from publications like **Billboard** and **Alternative
Press**, even landing airplay on **BBC Radio 1**.

After inking a new record deal with **Iodine Recordings**, the singer-songwriter
is gearing up for the release of Best Ex’s debut full length album _**With A Smile**_
out later this year.

**Best Ex**’s new single “[**I Promise To Ruin Your Life**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=cd61dd7277&e=615f2b8493)”
is out now. [**_With A Smile_**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=82bff0baf3&e=615f2b8493)
will be released on **October 6, 2023 **_via_** Iodine Recordings/Alcopop! Records**.

Vinyl pre-order available from Iodine and Deathwish Inc. in the US [HERE](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=857071241d&e=615f2b8493)
and Alcopop! In the UK and EU [HERE](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=a264cf50ef&e=615f2b8493).
Limited vinyl pressing of 250 copies on half orange and half midnight.

**Social Media:[Website](https://www.bestexnj.com/) | [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/bestexnj/)
| [Twitter](https://twitter.com/marielxloveland) | [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/bestexnj/)
| [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/artist/5e1bKhywUuMGHafddmBW6u)

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