Blusher have officially shared their second EP, Racer, today (July 31st). The six-track follow-up to 2023’s Should We Go Dance? comes in the middle of a very busy year for the Melbourne pop trio, who kicked off 2025 playing a run of shows supporting their idols Sugababes in theatres across the country and will conclude in with a run of headlining shows nationally this coming November.
In an exclusive for Music Feeds, the group have broken down each song on Racer. You can stream the EP in its entirety below, with Blusher’s track-by-track following and their tour dates after that.
Blusher – Racer
1. ‘Racer’
‘Racer’ was actually the title of the EP before this song was written. We felt like the word encapsulates the high energy, unstoppable feeling that we wanted to bring to the music. The song was written the morning after we went to a secret rave in downtown LA, where we danced under a bridge and watched as people lit off fireworks. It was one of those nights where we tapped into the power and fun of being a team, with clubbing as our sport. The next day, sleep-deprived and inspired, we bottled that feeling of euphoria – and ‘Racer’ was born.
2. ‘Don’t Look At Me Like That’
This is our anti-love song. It’s both flirtatious and platonic, and was inspired by those confusing friendships that have an element of fantasy and potential romance. There is so much optimism and determination required to have a crush on someone, but also to deny someone who feels that way about you. It’s one of those classic conversation topics that comes up a lot in groups of women, but we hadn’t heard much in pop music.
There was a great energy in the room on the day we wrote ‘Don’t Look At Me Like That’. This was partly because it was Lauren’s birthday, and partly because we were working with one of our absolute idols, Alisa Xayalith (who is the lead singer of The Naked & Famous). We all grew up on The Naked and Famous, and it feels so special to have an element of that nostalgia baked into this one.
3. ‘Last Man Standing’
‘Last Man Standing’ is the team anthem of RACER. We wanted a song that fills listeners with the sparkly, scrappy energy that gives them the determination to stay later and dance harder. Jade grew up performing in an ABBA tribute band with her family, and there’s definitely some of that sonic history in the DNA of this song. Jade started the song at an LA songwriting camp, and it was written over an old vocal sample of hers you can hear in the intro and throughout the song.
We were focused on bottling a sense of nostalgia in the chorus, so we took a lot of care in getting the melody and chords just right. The first version of this song was a lot more acoustic, as we were writing on live instruments in the room, but one of the key elements that stayed in was Jade’s Omnichord – a unique synth from the 80s, which sounds kind of like a harp from space.
4. ‘Marathon’
Miranda started this song in London on a really beautiful summer day. It’s a love song to your friend going through a breakup, or getting you through a breakup. The idea of dragging your girls on a marathon night out to get through the heartbreak was the first little seed of the sporty conceptual world of Racer, and inspired a lot of Pinterest boards filled with jersey corsets and vintage Adidas boxing boots. We feel like every body of work needs one song that’s a bit of a wildcard, “the weird guy” as we like to say, and ‘Marathon’ fills that space for this EP.
5. ‘WHATEVERWHATEVER’
We wrote ‘WHATEVERWHATEVER’ about the music industry. At the time, we were navigating some pretty serious conversations, and felt the need to write a song to help us blow off some steam. It’s a song you can dance to, and an opportunity to throw your hands up in the air to the things in life that are either out of your control – or, holistically, are not that deep.
Out of all the EP tracks, this was the first one we wrote, long before we knew we were working towards an EP and before the Racer concept had formed. In hindsight, the fact that there’s lyrics about “racing down the highway” and gritty, driven basslines in this song kind of feels like we were cooking up the world of Racer before we even consciously knew it.
6. ‘Running To You’
We’ve spent a lot of time in the past few years either on tour or living overseas, all while in long-distance relationships. This song is an earnest moment of confessing your love, and putting all your defenses aside. As tough as you are on the outside, there’s always a moment with that one person where you realise all the love song cliches are true. Fun fact about this song: Miranda dared Jade to see if she could sneak “golden retriever” into the lyrics somewhere, which she successfully did.
It felt important to show emotional contrast within this EP, but also to finish strong on an outro that makes you really want to get up and run. For the most part we love to play within the pop rules, but it just felt natural to be super indulgent and throw the rules out the window for the final sprint to the finish line of Racer. It’s the point in the night out when the sun is just coming up, the DJ is about to end her set on a euphoric high note and your mind turns to the person or people you love.
Blusher Racer 2025 EP Tour
- Saturday, November 15th – The Night Cat, Melbourne VIC
- Sunday, November 30th – The Brightside, Brisbane QLD
- Friday, December 5th – The Lansdowne, Sydney NSW
Tickets for all shows are on sale now via Blusher’s Linkfire.
Further Reading
Mr. Industry Break Down Their New EP ‘Dancing To My Own Internal Rhythm’
Yorke Breaks Down Each Song On Her New EP ‘Unfinished Business’
Adelaide’s Sunsick Daisy Take Us Track-By-Track Through Their New EP ‘Yonder’
