The red and black themed indie-pop sensation, Luna Day, is back with a new song after months of anticipation and teasing. Day released her latest song, “Shotgun Lovers,” on April 17 after announcing the song would be coming on her social media pages two weeks prior, instantly leaving fans in hopeful agony awaiting the new song to drop.
The California-based musician first made her breakout into the music scene by becoming popular on social media sites such as Instagram and TikTok. She constantly posts photoshoots and promotional content for her songs, always following closely to her color palette of black and dark red. Since beginning her career in 2023, Day has now accumulated over 52,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.
Day’s songs can be characterized by her heartaching, melodic lyrics and dreamy vocal range. She often writes songs about love and the many complicated emotions and circumstances surrounding falling in and out of love with somebody. “Shotgun Lovers” follows this trend perfectly and delivers another Day classic for me.
I’ve been a big fan of Day since the release of her first song, “Say It Back,” even though I’m usually not a big listener of this dreamy, girly music genre. However, ever since my first listen, I’ve been keeping all of her released songs, now seven songs in total, on all of my Spotify playlists. Songs such as “Obsessed” and “Psychosweet” are some standout favorites of mine, with “Shotgun Lovers” also quickly getting stuck in my head now as well.
“Shotgun Lovers” opens with Day’s familiar soft style of singing, with the lyrics, “Everywhere that I go, I just can’t, I just can’t cut you off. Even with my eyes closed, you haunt me, with every aching thought.” These lyrics open the song to deep themes of loss and mourning over a relationship that has fallen through, a beautiful and yet hurtful feeling.
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The main chorus of the song has the lyrics, “’Cause every time I think it over I feel it again, I feel it again and again. We were shotgun lovers, and now I’ll never call you a friend.” This chorus is repeated twice in the song and opens up to a more critical insight into the nature of the relationship depicted, especially in the final lines, “We were shotgun lovers, and now I’ll never call you a friend.”
I really liked the chorus of the song and the distinct way in which Day sings it. She gives the song a really catchy feeling, and the chorus makes me want to sing along every time I hear it. This definitely isn’t a new feeling when it comes to Day’s songs, though, as I simply find her unique voice very enjoyable and catchy.
Day’s lyrics are made even more touching as she explained her intention behind “Shotgun Lovers.” In a post to her Instagram page, Day expressed how this song was made purely for herself and that she hadn’t initially planned to ever release it.
Day explains that “Shotgun Lovers” is about a relationship now built on grudges and an intimacy of silence, which she believes to be cruel in comparison to what the relationship used to be. Day ended her note with an address, “to those who wish they could forget but are cursed to remember, ‘Shotgun Lovers’ is now yours,” which I found incredibly poetic.
With the release of “Shotgun Lovers,” Day also announced a four-venue tour she was going on to promote her music. Additionally, there have been many cryptic messages to fans and hopeful posts about the possibility of a full-length album coming out soon, something which Day has never released before.
As a Lunatic, which Day refers to her fans as, I can’t be more excited about the prospect of a full-length album being released soon. Day has quickly become one of my favorite artists, and I’m glad that she keeps releasing new music for her growing fanbase.
“Shotgun Lovers” is a great addition to Day’s discography and really encapsulates the same vibes as the rest of her songs. If you haven’t tried out listening to one of Day’s songs yet, you’re definitely missing out, as I can’t recommend her music more.