Surely Shirley – “Mine! Mine! Mine!”

Johnny is the coolest guy in town. That bitch Maryanne has secured his attention. And our narrator is at home crying into her pillow while mentally planning a wedding to a man who is currently walking away with another woman. Welcome to “Mine! Mine! Mine!” by Australian twin duo Surely Shirley, a song that makes romantic jealousy sound like the sweetest thing on the radio. Three declarations of ownership, each with its own exclamation point. Nobody has ever been less interested in playing hard to get. And frankly, I'm rooting for her, although I do think Johnny should be consulted before anyone puts down a deposit on the reception venue.

The song is a glorious time capsule, borrowing the doo-wop harmonies, bouncing rhythms, and wide-eyed romantic optimism of late-'50s and early-'60s pop. The sisters, Jenaya and Anisha Okpalanze, grew up on their grandparents' record collection, with influences ranging from The Beach Boys and The Del-Vikings to The Mamas & The Papas. You can hear that affection for the era in every corner of “Mine! Mine! Mine!” The harmonies are bright and beautifully stacked, the melody sounds ready to take over a sock hop, and the whole production has the cheerful urgency of a teenage crush that's become everybody's business. It's the kind of song that makes me want to find a jukebox, order a milkshake, and get dragged into someone else's romantic scandal before I've even found a booth.

And what a scandal. Our heroine insists that Johnny and Maryanne are a terrible match, largely because she has already decided that Johnny belongs with her. She's jealous, she's miserable, and she's convinced that their eventual marriage is a foregone conclusion. Maryanne, meanwhile, has been reduced to an administrative inconvenience. There's even a theatrical spoken introduction about how poets would struggle to describe this kind of love, which is especially funny considering our narrator proceeds to explain her predicament in considerable detail. Evidently, the poets are the only people having trouble expressing themselves. I love how Surely Shirley embrace the melodrama without winking at it. The song's sweetness is completely sincere, which makes the romantic territorial dispute at its center that much more entertaining.

“Mine! Mine! Mine!” arrives ahead of the duo's forthcoming EP, Petticoats & Pistols, due February 19, 2027, and that title feels tailor-made for the occasion. Surely Shirley are taking the musical language of their grandparents' generation and giving it a spirited new life, complete with all the longing, jealousy, and spectacularly ill-advised romantic decisions that made those old records so irresistible. I hope Johnny eventually comes to his senses. I hope Maryanne finds a dark alley. And I hope our narrator gets the wedding she's already planned down to the last detail. Although if Johnny chooses differently, I would advise him to leave town before the next chorus.