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Mariel Loveland of Best Ex’s newly released single “Good Girl” pushes back on the idea of women being written as simply mothers or wives. The song serves as an honest portrait of growing up in a world that tempts you to lose yourself. “Good Girl” has become the accidental blueprint for the entire album, out November 6, which follows the idea of the reality of becoming adults: friendships changing, people you love growing older, losing people, marriage, anxiety, and questioning your purpose.

Ironically, “Good Girl” became the centerpiece of the album before Loveland even realized she was making one. With inspiration from her emotionally driven alternative rock, she was able to create an album that challenges the perspectives people are so used to. “I grew up loving these emotionally honest alternative rock records written by adults figuring life out,” she explains. But she felt that the idea of “what comes next?” was missing: what happens when we grow older, our friendships change, and we begin to question our purpose. “What if the life you had imagined when you were a child doesn’t come out to how you expected?” Written in an hour, the song became a sharp point for what she wanted to do sonically and the emotional direction of the album.

“Good Girl” follows the release of two previous striking singles that introduced different sides of the album’s emotional landscape. The first, “Is This It?” channels Loveland’s frustration with living in an era dominated by misinformation, political division, and an endless cycle of alarming headlines. While the quiet moments of everyday life remain filled with love and hope, the song wrestles with the emotional exhaustion of constantly witnessing chaos unfold online and asking how anyone is expected to simply carry on as though nothing has changed.

Its follow-up, “Sick Of Myself,” turned the lens inward. One of the most vulnerable songs Loveland has written to date, it examines the exhausting relationship we have with ourselves—the endless second-guessing, anxious overthinking, and fear that our insecurities may actually be true. Rather than offering easy answers, the song sits honestly with those uncomfortable thoughts, transforming deeply personal anxieties into something strikingly universal.

Together, the three singles offer a window into Good Girl, an album that feels simultaneously intimate and expansive. Written over the past two and a half years, the record documents a period of enormous personal change. The album explores everything from changing friendships and grief to marriage, anxiety, and figuring out who you are as adulthood finally catches up with you.

Across its eleven tracks, Good Girl was written in Brooklyn and Hoboken, New Jersey, with longtime collaborator and producer Andy Tongren. The album continues Loveland’s exploration of womanhood and adulthood while reflecting on the complicated process of growing into a version of yourself that rarely resembles the one you imagined as a child.

Best Ex’s new single “Good Girl” is out now. Her sophomore album Good Girl will be released on November 6, 2026, via Iodine Recordings.