Doing my makeup for another first date – good eyeliner, the jeans that make my ass look hot, trying to muster up excitement for someone whose bio promised ‘good conversation’ which we all know is code for something else – and this plays on shuffle. Suddenly I’m having an existential crisis in front of my mirror because Kelsey Blackstone just put into words exactly how fucking tired I am of this whole cycle. ‘Another night, another date / Bumble didn’t show your face’ hits different when you’re about to meet someone you’ve been texting with for a week and you already know how the night’s gonna end, you just don’t know if you’ll remember his name in the morning. “Do our values align, are you worth the time?” becomes the question you’re asking before you even leave the house.
“Rinse and Repeat” is what happens when dating fatigue gets a sultry jazz soundtrack. This track is warm and groovy in all the right ways – funky bass lines that make your hips move without permission, horns that feel like they’re soundtracking a confession, and Kelsey’s vocals dripping with the kind of honesty that only comes after you’ve been through this shit enough times to laugh about it. And let’s be real – the sex is rarely worth the effort of pretending to care about his startup idea over drinks. Written in three hours back in February and produced remotely between Nashville and Austin over nine months, this collaboration is proof that sometimes the best chemistry happens at a distance.
The song captures something real: that weird push-pull of wanting connection but being so damn tired of the process. “I need respect, need a friend / Someone workin’ on themselves / Don’t need a picket fence, I just need your time.” That’s the shit we’re actually asking for now. Not some outdated relationship checklist, just someone who’s doing the work and shows up. But getting there? That’s the exhausting part Kelsey’s singing about.
Advertisement
There’s this moment where she asks the waiter to “bring another round” because she’s “got some stuff to figure out” – and honestly, that’s the most relatable lyric I’ve heard in months. That’s every first date where you’re trying to decode if this person sitting across from you is your future or just good conversation and a mediocre lay. “Will I get lost in your eyes / For life or just for the night?” We’ve all tried to read those signs in the moment.
The chorus lands with a deflated acceptance that feels defeatist but somehow empowering: “Rinse and repeat, start over, baby / Will we still be hanging out? / This time next week or will we / Rinse and repeat, no.” It’s that question you’re asking yourself on every dating app and every time you’re putting yourself out there again. The repetition in the melody mirrors the cycle she’s describing – it’s fucking genius in how simple it is.
Kelsey wrote this with Tobias about how “finding love can be hard sometimes, dating burnout is real, and how tiring it is to always put yourself out there without knowing if it’s gonna work out.” And she’s right – it is tiring. The second verse gets even more real: “Mom and Dad can’t keep up / The names and faces can be tough / They still ask me about the one that broke my heart.” If you’ve ever had to explain to your family that no, you’re not still seeing that person they met once, you feel this.
But here’s what makes this track work – Kelsey doesn’t wallow in it. She admits “Been here many times before / Lessons that I can’t ignore / Tired of the chase, but I can’t help that I want more.” That’s the contradiction we’re all living in: exhausted by dating but still wanting love. Still showing up. Still hopeful even when hope feels stupid.
Advertisement
The production is where Tobias Lund’s groove influence really shines through. Those funky bass lines keep the song from getting too heavy, the horns add this playful element that keeps things sexy instead of sad. It’s giving Katie Tupper’s soul-pop energy mixed with Olivia Dean’s emotional honesty and Lawrence’s retro grooviness. The whole vibe is lowkey enough for your morning commute but sultry enough for getting ready to go do this whole damn dance again.
Kelsey Blackstone has been building this vibrant contemporary sound across the country, selling out rooms and opening for acts like Lloyiso and Mom Rock. Her “colors, bubbles, sass, and fun” aesthetic is all over this track – even when she’s singing about exhaustion, there’s this undercurrent of playfulness. Meanwhile, Tobias Lund has been winning over Austin with his soul-R&B blend and influences like Stevie Wonder and Allen Stone, earning love from KUTX and Sonic Guild.
The fact that they made this entirely remotely between Nashville and Austin makes it even more impressive. That that chemistry and shared understanding of what modern dating feels like – all captured without being in the same room. Maybe that’s fitting for a song about trying to connect in an era where we’re all swiping right from a distance anyway.
I keep coming back to that line: “Tired of the chase, but I can’t help that I want more.” Because that’s the whole fucking thing, isn’t it? We’re exhausted and jaded but still out here hoping the next one might be different. Kelsey and Tobias didn’t write a breakup song or a love song. They wrote the in-between – that liminal space where we’re all just trying to figure out if we’re about to find something real or if we’re about to hit restart one more time. And somehow they made it groove.
