Paige Bea - Goodbye, Then!

London synth witch Paige Bea returns with a refreshingly detailed EP. Releases editor Ewan Samms explores it's twists and turns.

Praise be Paige Bea! As seasonal depression looms on the entire student body, this slick and atmospheric collection of Pop zingers works to keep us grooving. There's a real sense of attitude and voice throughout the tracklist, down to the visual details, title names and lyrics. The cinematic lens through which Paige frames the cover art and social campaign extends to the vivid storytelling across Goodbye, Then! I can't really tell if Bea's grabbing of the steering wheel is inviting me into her car, or rather preparing to run me over with flawless synth-pop production.

Opener 4x4 proclaims a romantic sweet nothing we all long to share with a dearly beloved: "you could run me over with a 4x4." I love love! The opening synth line worms into your brain alongside a deep bass and digitally treated vocal line. It's as if we're hearing the tune through a considerately placed speaker in the boot of Paige's car. It doesn't take long for Goodbye, Then! to deliver a menacingly catchy hook, alongside nicely detailed production littered with ear candy. Autopilot's 7/4 groove makes room for a slinky bassline and plenty of atmospheric clicks and clacks. The lyrical content is annoyingly relatable, with the state of dating in 2022 removing all autonomy and any form of intense feelings surrounding the heart. Good thing Bea's performance is not only well piloted, but satisfyingly layered.

Melt was the introduction to this new era, a reinvention for the Bea that shows she could have real staying power. The opening synth is that kind of satisfying sound that makes me turn up my headphones just for 10 seconds to really hear it. The wandering synths and rattling drum machines create a cavernous space for Paige to stretch her vibrato and present a real warmth. This warmth is all but removed in the bridge with a stunning vocal line and a lonely piano recording. It all recapitulates in a creepily lonely way, where Paige's 'melting' with a new lover is almost detrimental to her being: 'I break in two, then three, then four, then five, I'm so soft I'm barely alive." Stay Still is a real highlight for me. Trying to fit a purposeful ballad into an EP like Goodbye, Then! could present a real challenge, but Paige got it just right. The synth work reminds me of JPEGMAFIA's work on All My Heroes Are Cornballs, whilst the masterful melodic writing could have been untimely ripped from the chamber of pop. The track builds and swells with melancholy in an almost angry proclamation; whether good or bad, things never stay still. (Bea never found the handbrake in her car smh).

"The synth work reminds me of JPEGMAFIA's work on All My Heroes Are Cornballs, whilst the masterful melodic writing could have been untimely ripped from the chamber of pop."

Paige enters The Quiet of the Hours on a spotlit stage surrounded by luscious vocoder accompaniment. She alluded to her "late nights listening to James Blake" earlier in the tracklist, with the original-sad-white-boy's influence finding it's footing firmly here in the production of Jonjo Keefe and Leo Wyatt, AKA KINDER. Swathes of textural pads, cute drum work a la Mullholland by Blake and beautiful smatterings of soft piano, (a KINDER signature), turn this track into an immense and not-at-all-quiet wall of sound. Bea's vocal finish here is sublime.

Goodbye, Then! stunned me. I was lucky enough to chat to Paige about the recording of the EP's finale and she had this to share: "It's probably a very unromantic thing to say, but, the writing of Goodbye, Then! was probably the most efficient of all the tracks on the EP. I think part of that was down to it's simplicity but also how naturally the track came to be. I came back from a holiday and this guy I'd been seeing just completely blanked me. Summer had totally disappeared, everything looked dull and grim, (although most things do compared to a beach in Greece). I sat down at the piano and the lyrics all just happened at the same time, which for me is always how the best songs happen. I tried to write a second verse but it just didn't have the same intuitive feel to it. The short 'verse-chorus-outro' structure just felt right. Jonjo said it would be best if he set everything up so I could just come in on my own and record the piano and vox at the same time, as there's no tempo to the track either. I think it makes it more intimate. I'm pretty sure this is a whole take bar one or two edits. When we went to produce it we wanted to have this big moment, but I was also obsessed with the idea of adding in a sound that was like a spaceship losing signal. The whole EP is about saying goodbye to a version of yourself, and I wanted to do this sonically too." I'm glad that Paige Bea was able to cast this version of herself into a tight collection of detailed synth-pop tracks. Goodbye, then!

Ewan Samms

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Edited by: Ewan Samms

In article images courtesy of Paige Bea. In article videos courtesy of Paige Bea on YouTube.