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Growing up sucks — just ask Bea Miller. The pop artist’s latest offering, Mr. Peaked in High School, is a meditation on all the ways adulthood never really holds up to what we were promised, from money woes and relationships that never go anywhere, to a world that can seem built for failure. 

Rising to fame after a stint on The X-Factor as a teenager, Miller spent her adolescence working on her musical career. Now, in her late 20s, the artist is reflecting on adulthood and the teenage years she misses — and missed out on. 

On opening track “born to lose,” Miller joked, “I’m Mr. Peaked in High School, but I never even went,” but reveals she misses “being a teenager more than I care to admit.”

That bittersweet nostalgia hangs over the album, especially on acoustic track “summer of ‘16,” a slow-jam that sees the singer recalling past adventures with a former friend (“We all should've died // but at 17, that only makes you feel alive”) and the glittery 80s-inspired pop track “drunk enough” (“Maybe you were actually the one // or am I just drunk?”). 

Miller’s sense of humor shines throughout the project, even if it skews a little dark. “pretty and alone” has the pop singer declaring, “But I’m a star // just like Madonna // if she was drunk and poor,” calling herself “a beautiful girl who doesn’t want ‘em // but they should still want me.”

Meanwhile, “depressed on the internet” takes Miller’s mental health struggles and turns them into an eye-rolling chant about how she’s just “another girl depressed on the internet // monetizing her mental health.”

While the songs’ subject matter can feel heavy, Miller’s sardonic delivery gives her recitations of woe a different dimension — and feel entirely relatable. After all, who among us hasn’t made a joke out of a bad situation? The album’s production keeps things upbeat, as well. Miller blends 80s pop influences with more updated grungy electronic sounds, giving the songs a danceable quality that never feels at odds with her vulnerable lyrics. 

The project’s closing track, “PARTY,” is a perfect summing-up of Mr. Peaked in High School’s message. An energetic — and at times, frenetic — ode to partying in the face of problems, Miller tells her listeners, “There’s no light to see and I guess that kind of sets me free.”

Mr. Peaked in High School tracks the high highs and low lows of early adulthood, and Miller does it all with a more-than-slightly sarcastic smile — and a desire to pay tribute to every version of her younger self that led her here. 

“It took all of the phases of my music and of myself to create this album,” she said in a statement about the project. “I wanted to make sure that I included almost tributes to the selves that I have been in the lyrics and even in some of the melodies and the musical sounds and choices that we were making. Because without those things and without those versions of me, we wouldn't have this album. This album is what I've been leading up to for a really long time and building up to, and I just didn't realize it.”

Growing up is never easy, but with Miller’s Mr. Peaked in High School, listeners can take heart in the fact that they’re not the only ones facing adulthood with nothing but the lessons they’ve learned along the way — and a healthy dose of humor. 

Listen to Mr. Peaked In High School below: