After dominating social media with hit song Coffee, a spindly tale recorded in her bedroom in London, Beabadoobee is back with debut LP release, Fake It Flowers. Anthemic slacker rock with its inspirations laid bare, here, the young maven swaps boudoir for bass and air guitar for the real thing, and the result is mesmerising. Grace Dalaigh-Taylor delves into an explorative album that gives the younger generation something to laugh, cry, dance, and relate to.
Beabadoobee’s debut LP Fake It Flowers is finally here, and with its crystal clear nineties grunge-pop style, seemingly a perfect statement of Gen-Z music today, is amongst the years most hotly anticipated releases. Taking influence from female voices such as Alanis Morrisette and Dolores O’Riordan, Beabadoobee has created a twelve track album that is an ode to what it means to be a young woman today - turning relationship hardships and teenage angst into something to dance and sing to.
It is clear that she is a modern inspiration to many out there; her viral hit Coffee could be heard on almost all younger generations phones when it was sampled in Powfu's TikTok. Having had a hugely successful few years, being signed to the 1975’s label Dirty Hit as well as supporting indie pop beloved Clairo on her US tour, it is about time we were graced with an album from Beabadoobee.
‘Fake It Flowers is a mature and insightful look into what trauma is and feels like, and a true testament to how far Bea has come.’
Beatrice Kristi, as she is known aside from Beabadoobee, is originally from the Philippines; growing up in London, she often felt like an outsider, finding herself listening to alternative indie music and immersing herself in past nostalgia. Mixing this with the very relatable teenage urge to test boundaries and break the rules, Bea found her taste for music through learning guitar. What followed were a delicate mix of both pure unfiltered lyrics and a soft, acoustic sound.
Fake It Flowers is a mature and insightful look into what trauma is and what it feels like, and a true testament to how far the young artist has come in such a short time. Beabadoobee even went on to receive a nomination for the BRIT's Critics Choice Award in early 2020, as well as performing at the NME awards, and alongside the 1975’s O2 Arena shows - arguably an impressive feat for someone at the age of twenty. It was after returning from this latest tour that Bea began to craft Fake It Flowers.
So what are we expecting to hear? All the songs on Fake It Flowers have a beautiful way of providing us with something to relate to - whether it be pain and anguish, or relationship worries. Opening track Care surges its listener into a lagoon of melodic 90’s vibes whilst Bea's lyrics touch softly on past events that caused her pain. It is hard not to take note of her sentiment when she professes intensely, “you don’t really care, care, care!” - a statement which Beabadoobee herself says reflects society's, and perhaps those she deems to be close to hers, ignorance to her past painful experiences.
The sentiment ensues in the song entitled Further Away; the relaxed, almost melancholy feel to the track capturing her feelings towards a past toxic relationship in which she had too ‘pretend’ to be ok. Through sharing her troubles with her listeners, Bea shows that she truly gets it; she told The Guardian, “I want to be that girl I needed when I was 15.” Though one of the album's most fun tracks, the intense and extreme nature of Emo Song seeks to highlight Bea’s own mistrust in men and how it has been a strain for her. The beautiful intensity of her music flows into Charlie Brown, which is an honest remark on her struggles with self-harm.
‘With tickets out now for her 2021 UK tour, we can be sure that the future of the bedpop protégé is an inexplicably bright one.’
With mental-health awareness being at the forefront of most peoples minds, especially during these testing times, it is something special to listen to such a raw meditation on trauma and struggle - Beabadoobee’s exquisite words lend a hand to her listeners in the best way possible. In a society that pressures us to fit into the perfect mould, it is extremely refreshing to hear a creative artist profess about their own imperfections in way that does not glamourise it.
So, is Beabadoobee the face of a new generation of artists that offer up the most real and raw music to relate to? It would seem so. She is still growing, and she might be the first to admit that, but Fake It Flowers ticks all the boxes for the modern age of pop sound. With tickets out now for her 2021 UK tour, we can be sure that the future of the bedpop protégé is an inexplicably bright one.
Written by: Grace Dalaigh-Taylor
Edited by: Alex Duke
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