Romy Mars Asks "Don't I Look Hot Crying?" In Her Spicy "Ego" Lyrics

Romy Mars is mixing the sweet with the sour on her hypnotic new pop song “Ego.” While the upbeat single may sound like a carefree, summery bop, its duplicitous lyrics mask a pointed resentment beneath the bedroom eyes. Continuing Mars’ provocative sensibilities from her latest release, “A-Lister,” she distracts a disappointing lover with a siren song of come-ons.

“Ego” explores a fraught relationship, which Mars is eager to quickly repair even if she’s still hanging on to some hostility about her partner. Though they’re in a spat now, Mars envisions them becoming “all-American mom and dad” down the line. To get to that white-picket-fence finish line, Mars weaponizes her sexuality to smooth over those annoying relationship issues they have: “Don't get in your head, get under the covers.”

Though she’s having a hard time finding the love for this man (“The good in you's buried deep down”), Mars resolves to stroke is ego to glaze over the problem:

Could you close your eyes and pretend my body's your ego? / We could go all night long as it's not about me though / If you wanna see how thin on ice you are, feel my waist / Wanna know how pretty life was without you, look at my face / Pretend my body's your mood / You'll see when I'm on top, I go up and down like you / If you wanna know how hard it is to listen to you talk / Just look down at yourself when I take my clothes off

As Mars uses her wiles to distract both her partner and herself from the cracks in their relationship, she conjures images of their picture-perfect future together, where they share “a loving wealth” and she’s “on a Percocet, tanning in the front lawn.”

But even in this suburban fantasy, Mars realizes she still can’t fully escape the unresolved discontent: “Don’t I look hot crying? / While I’m slowly dying.”

“Ego” is Mars’ fourth official release, following her debut EP last summer.