Welcome to ‘Beatopia,’ where Beabadoobee unleashes her new sound.
Image Credit: Erika Kamano
In what is her best piece of work to date, Bea reconciles with her younger self and, in tune with her staple nineties old-school sound, does so across past, present, and future. Delivering an eclectic but cohesive mix of tracks, her upcoming second studio album Beatopia tackles themes of self-discovery and self-acceptance. It explores life in childlike wonder, with sonically entrancing elements comprising chants, violins and sounds reminiscent of wind chimes. She brings the growth and maturity one expects from an artist’s second album, packed with her established unapologetic honesty and grungy guitar stringing.
An album born out of her childhood imagination, Beatopia started as a magical fictional world, with entire towns, cities and countries named by a then seven-year-old Bea. “I chose to bury it deep within me,” she reveals once her beloved creation became subject to mockery by one of her teachers. The opener, Beatopia Cultsong, instantly transports the listener to this reimagined world. A rhythmic guitar stringing slowly builds up as what appears to be sounds of crystals clinging together, wind chimes, and unintelligible voices sprinkle throughout. The voices are part of real conversations, recorded in an impromptu writing session with friends, highlighting that the album’s thematic embrace of spontaneity goes beyond its lyrics. A chant starts to resonate throughout. “Is it me or recently time is moving slowly.” Here, the inevitable pandemic-related take invites listeners into the escapism we have come to seek and love. While I don’t think preludes hold that much replay value — does anyone actually listen to them apart from when streaming albums in full? — here, it undoubtedly serves its conceptual purpose. It’s clear after listening to it that this is going to be a departure from her debut sound, ending up expanding it from stripped-down folksy tunes to dreamy pop, with tracks including samba and D&B influences. The latter refers to tinkerbell is overrated, an exciting feature with fellow Gen Z icon PinkPantheress that, admitedly, takes a while to properly kick off.
In fact, this album is very much the result of a collaborative process, one of them being with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy who co-wrote three of the songs, the atmospheric Pictures of Us, and the more stripped-down moments You’re Here That’s the Thing and Ripples. But perhaps the most important of all is the active input from her guitarist Jacob Bugden throughout the album. After all, reverb-laden guitar moments are Beabadoobee’s signature, and here they are taken to another level. This could have easily been another Fake it Flowers, with various nineties-like alt-rock tracks easily receiving critical praise and public love, but what fun would that be? Beatopia tries something new and succeeds. Amidst the album’s varied input, it is a feat that Bea manages to make each song feel hers. Ripples, a Disney-esque ballad where violins take centre stage, feels like a continuation to her debut’s Horen Sarrison, a string-drenched ode to her boyfriend at the time. The perfect pair is another track where the guitars let violins have their moment, on a samba-inflected bed, and is an experimentation that pays off as one of the highlights of the album. Additional OPM (Original Pilipino Music) influences in You’re Here That’s the Thing, reflect a good balance between the collaborative parts and personal sonic quests. “People sometimes overthink albums,” Bea says. “Like, everything must sound like it’s part of the same album. If the same artist is writing the album, every song could sound completely different – but if it comes from the same heart, then it’s part of the same thing.”
Speaking on the choice for the album’s lead single, the infectious ‘Talk,’ Bea explains its purpose as a bridge between her debut album and this latest release. “It would be illegal if I released an album without a song like Talk!” With her grungy nineties-inspired pop-rock anthems, the Filipino-British singer-songwriter often has her music likened to coming-of-age soundtracks. And Beatopia will not leave her fans disappointed. While she explores new genres and influences, songs like 10:36 and Don’t get the deal bring the familiar explosive instrumental breaks and choruses to scream along to. One can just imagine her voice rippling out into the crowd, signalling one of her strengths lies in the potential for her live artistry.
Still, the streaming experience benefits from the playful and varied pace of the album, with no song taking away from it despite the clear standouts. The dreamy See you Soon, the second single off Beatopia, is one of them. It served as an introduction to the airy atmospheric sound of the album. Self-described as “a breath of fresh air,” it ties with the aura of self-realisation found in this latest work. Sonically too, it is reminiscent of many tracks in Beatopia while avoiding repetitiveness, with its ending containing the sparkly tinkling sounds found in tracks like Lovesong. These sounds often resemble wind chimes, a key element in the practice of Feng Shui in parts of Asia, thought to bring in positive energy. Whether intentional or not, this adds to the nature-like airiness throughout the tracks, with lots of natural motifs throughout, particularly in Ripples. “As the water glistens, then I see my reflection so much clearer,” she reveals in the ballad. Fairy song and tinkerbell is overrated continue to add to this glittering magical feel by naming the fantastical creatures.
Overall, the album reconciles this childlike wide-eyed wonder with mature lyricism, in a true coming-of-age fashion. “Speak to your brother, check he’s okay, need to get out more, don’t smoke all day.” The folky fairy song is a playful track full of advice to herself, which in theory could have been quite cringe but her honesty cuts through to the listener and feels real. There’s a timelessness in the relatability and universality of what she sings about. Love, uncertainty, youth, she tackles this all with songwriting that can shift from some deep lyricism to a simple vibey “do-do-do-do” moment, the latter in the fun self-aware lovesong being yet “just another love song […].” This is part of Beabadoobee’s charm. And it is what has gained her a loyal following beyond her TikTok viral Coffee, sampled in the lo-fi hit death bed (coffee for your head) that became the soundtrack to the early pandemic. Here, once again, she succeeds in going beyond the chase for that viral 15-seconds, instead creating a 14-track-long moment. With repeated refrains that can easily turn into anthems, her cathartic Beatopia grapples through her growing pains and delivers a timeless classic in the process.
