Further spurring the anticipation for wor$t man in america, her “inverse” album, of sorts, to WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA, Slayyyter has offered up another single from the nine-track record: “I Think He’s Got a Girl.” Following “Brand New Chanels” and “Crank 2,” this particular track is more in the lamenting spirit of the former, with Slayyyter once again addressing a man who clearly broke her heart. And yes, in real life, Slayyyter did suffer a similar kind of heartbreak after discovering that her now ex, Charlie Shuffler, cheated on her in her own damn house earlier this year while she was away rehearsing for her Coachella performance.
Thus, the opening verse to “I Think He’s Got a Girl” feels particularly personal, with Slayyyter sadly narrating, “I took our pictures off the wall, picked all your clothes up off the floor/Put them inside a box, taped it up, sent it straight to New York.” She then goes further back into the past to explain how her ex’s offending “dalliance” first began, recalling, “Moved in together, second floor, she kept on coming to your bar/Is something going on?/You’re too quick on the draw, lie every time you talk/It makes me feel so crazy, like I got everything wrong.” At this point in the lyrical journey, one would be remiss not to draw the parallel to Lily Allen’s entire vibe on West End Girl. Especially with the line about being too quick on the draw with the lies, as Allen highlights of her now ex (*cough cough* David Harbour) throughout the record. With one such example being in “Tennis,” with the verse, “Then you showed me a photo/On Instagram/It was how you grabbed your phone back/Right out of my hands.” That stoking of paranoia and the engagement of gaslighting are present in both tracks, with Slayyyter’s sounding much less chirpy.
In fact, during the first part of the song, Slayyyter has more of an early-era Lana Del Rey sound to her voice, all “babyish” in the spirit of an unreleased early work of LDR’s like “Kinda Outta Luck.” What’s more, having already firmly established her love of “Lana aesthetics” throughout the various videos thus far released from both WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA and wor$t man in america, she continues to build on that with her video for “I Think He’s Got a Girl.” Starting from the very opening scene of Slayyyter (who, as usual, self-directed the visual), lounging in a sultry manner/“side plank” kind of position on the side of a spa that overlooks a pool. In a backyard that reeks of the “California luxury” Del Rey also paraded in her video for “Blue Jeans.” And yes, Slayyyter even sports a white, 1950s-style bathing suit à la Lana in that very video.
In the next moment, she’s actually stretched out in the spa before there’s another cut to her inside of the house in front of a hot tub-inspired bath. Indeed, the entire setup of this particular room is very reminiscent of Jayne Mansfield’s interior design sensibilities. Complete with the French-style rotary phone perched on the same step Slayyyter is sitting on while wearing her lingerie and eyeglasses (an interesting contrast in that few, if any, women ever sport their glasses while trying to be “sexy” in lingerie…unless perhaps trying to vaguely fulfill someone’s “fuck the librarian” fantasy). Before long, it’s back out to the pool, where Slayyyter now poses on a diving board with palm trees and a plastic pink flamingo decoration in the background. Thereby freshly emphasizing her intensive study of “Del Rey totems.”
When the chorus bursts out, it’s pure Courtney Love, rather than Lana, that she’s channeling, the impassioned angst in her voice also coming on the heels of everyone going apeshit for her “Like a Version” cover of Hole’s “Violet.” And as she sings, “I hope it doesn’t mean what I know it means/I think he’s got a girl, oh, yeah.” This as the moody guitar instrumentation, courtesy of co-producers Austin Corona and Wyatt Bernard, ring out to punctuate her melancholy. That melancholy also funneled into a barbecuing session during which she lets the flame climb high while wearing an outfit that looks decidedly Dolls Kill-esque (much like Doja Cat’s wardrobe in the video for “Agora Hills”). Though, of course, Slayyyter prides herself on either “sourcing” only vintage items and/or sewing her own outfits. As for the former practice, sometimes it’s a detriment to herself while a boon for the environment since, as she told Seth Meyers during her recent appearance on his show, she ended up getting a strange rash on her back from the hazardous materials in a vintage showgirl costume she wore in the video for “Brand New Chanels.” Perhaps a small price to pay for “immortalizing” a certain “aesthetic” for this era in her career (And yes, needless to say, she, like JADE, is far more of a real-ass showgirl than Taylor Swift.)
The Americana imagery Slayyyter, in the spirit of Del Rey, tends to exude for this album cycle also shows up in a scene of her splayed out on the grass in her “Dorothy-esque” red heels, situated in front of a pair of lawn chairs with a lawnmower and a football also nearby. “Accoutrements” that, apart from a barbecue, are staples of the “quintessential” American yard. She then channels a reluctant housewife for a new backdrop incorporated into the “narrative” around the two-minute-three-second mark of the video, dressed in a white lace ensemble as she disinterestedly holds a vacuum.
In truth, she seems much more interested in belting out her lyrics with a pelt on. This time, a raccoon one (in lieu of the fox one she wears in the “Crank” video) while in the “billiard room” surrounded by animal heads hung on the wall (a.k.a. “trophy mounts”—a disgusting practice, to be sure). And, based on the lyrics for “I Think He’s Got a Girl,” it seems Slayyyter wouldn’t mind having her ex’s head mounted next to one of them as punishment for his betrayal and deceit.
Starting to spiral all the more as the final rounds of the chorus are sung, Slayyyter then proceeds to act out some very “Cruel World”-type moments, as if directly inspired by Lana’s lyrics, “Got my little red party dress on/Everybody knows that I’m the best, I’m crazy/Get a little bit of bourbon in ya/Get a little bit suburban and go crazy.” For Slayyyter, this manifests in writhing around on the pool table, getting caught in the wire of the vacuum she obviously doesn’t want to use (unless it’s to pantomime hanging herself with said wire), traipsing recklessly around the house with a fish purse in hand and doing some more “toe-dipping” in the pool with a surfboard behind her.
In one of the final scenes, when Slayyyter is back in the “Jayne Mansfield room” sitting inside the tub, she looks longingly at the rotary phone (this moment somewhat echoing Madonna’s vibe in the video for “I Want You”). As if still half-expecting that the cad might actually call her to apologize and beg for forgiveness (or, as Allen asks on “Beg for Me,” “Why won’t you beg, beg, beg for me?”). Alas, like Lana, Slayyyter is tragically made to feel like “The Other Woman,” with one of her final revelations in the song being, “Said she was from the past, the past is in your arms/And now I realize you were never mine.” This being a common disappointment for an “old-fashioned” girl who still expects monogamy in a century that has largely dispensed with that practice in favor of “looser” labels (“situationship” comes to mind).
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