Following the release of their Hopeless Records debut single, “i should call my friends,” in October 2023, Hey Violet has returned with their latest track, aiming to simplify the complexities of romance with “Uncomplicated.” The new single serves as an anthem for the messiness, melodrama, and the unsteadiness of young love. Against the backdrop of an array of infectious guitars and drums, the narrative unfolds, pitting the allure of complications against the predictability of a healthy relationship.
Elevated by its contagious chorus and underscored by evocative lyrics, “Uncomplicated” plunges into the throes of young love. Lines such as, “I know that you’re not too risky/But what’s it gonna hurt if you take me/Into the bathroom at one of those parties/And fuck me ‘til I swear to you that I’m sorry” depict a chaotic, unbridled expression of desire. The song traverses myriad complexities of love, seizing the uninhibited desire for excitement and exaggerated passion.
“This song was a way to call out my own distorted thinking in relationships… a sort of reckoning for what I chase and why I chase it,” vocalist Rena Lovelis shares of the track. “I remember when I was 16 years old, and I was dating someone who was just a total sweetheart, and I was bored out of my mind. It really had nothing to do with that person; it was the volatility that Nia and I grew up witnessing that then transgressed into my relationships later on.”
Read more: 11 Songs For The Perfect Alternative Anti-Valentine’s Day Playlist
She continues, “‘Uncomplicated’ was initially written by us, our friend Robbie Hiser, and an artist friend for their project, but we ended up loving the song and asked if we could have it for this album. The lyrics really feel like a harsh spotlight on my thinking, and we thought it was an important part of the album as a whole. It sounds pretty flirty at first, just like how it usually begins when you start to like someone. The pre-chorus is a release, like you start to open up to someone or maybe you see one another sad, and it’s this sweet moment of emotional nakedness with your person, and then the chorus comes in like a freight train to sonically portray the ways I’d create problems in relationships out of my own insecurities.”
“The last chorus has a particular lyric change that felt like a perfectly imperfect summation of what’s really happening beneath the surface of the rest of the lyrics. We didn’t want it to just be a song that glorifies toxicity, but, instead, one where the protagonist actually looks at their own patterns of behavior and goes, ‘Wow. This actually has very little to do with the other person and is the product of my own inner turmoil.’”