Teens in Trouble - I Do

Lauren Records / Sneak Dog Records

I am a sucker for some sickly-sweet vocals over a fuzzed-out guitar. Luckily for myself and anyone like me, these are two things the new song from Teens in Trouble delivers in abundance. Following an excellent debut album in 2024 and a split with the eternally underrated Richmond rockers in Bat Boy one year later, Teens in Trouble are back with “I Do,” a three-minute slice of alternative rock bliss that hides a cathartic edge.

Though its title might evoke marital commitment, “I Do” is actually a friendship breakup song that opens with a Coldplay-ass guitar riff (complimentary) as lead singer Lizzie Killian unspools her thoughts about a relationship that is clearly better off in the past. Things take on a more Weezer-coded tint as she opens “I’m fine / Actually, never mind / Rememberin’ why I was mad” over a head-bobbing garage pop riff. 

The following verse depicts this ex-friend in more definition, portraying a delusional individual chiefly concerned with spinning a web of deceit to fit their own manufactured worldview. Though these kinds of people are most certainly better left out of your life, sometimes your mind will flip to them, presenting their memory like a flash card, if only for a moment. Sometimes you wonder how they are doing; other times you replay conversations or disagreements, but your brain can’t help but revisit this person who was once so important in your life. Lizzie sums this phenomenon more succinctly in the chorus and its lead-in, singing, “I never think about you anymore / I bet you wish I did / I bet you wish I did / Ooh, well I don’t / I do.”

This sort of back-and-forth can be painful as your brain folds in on itself, trying to figure out how you feel. In the end, you’re probably better off not giving them the power, but that’s easier said than done, especially for someone with a brain that has an almost-supernatural ability to fixate and compulsively focus on the smallest little thing. In the song’s music video, we watch our heroine duke it out in the boxing ring, interspersed with flashbacks of the same two fighters training and coming up together. Though the video ends with the fighters hanging up their gloves, it's clear all the blood, sweat, tears, and traded blows had to happen to get here. 

As unspeakably complex as relationships like this can be, songs like “I Do” find a way to navigate those tangled, heavy feelings with just a few words. Stick a kick-ass guitar solo in there and coat everything in some feel-good power chords, and that helps make the situation a bit easier to swallow.