Beabadoobee's nostalgic sounding debut Fake it Flowers shows potential in abundance from a twenty-year-old Filipino-British singer hyped by NME and BBC and already featured on one of the biggest songs of 2020. The rise has been quick, here's how she got there.
There has been hype around Beabadoobee for some time now. In 2017 she wrote her first song 'Coffee', bringing her to the attention of the West London indie label Dirty Hit. A couple of EPs were released and a buzz slowly growing. Then all of a sudden, everything changed. The gradual rise was quickly catapulted to the top.
In 2019 Canadian rapper Powfu sampled 'Coffee' for his new song 'Death Bed (Coffee for Your Head)' which, upon release in February 2020, became an absolutely massive global hit, thanks, in large part, to the video-sharing platform TikTok. In March 2020 it reportedly received 4.1 billion plays, including 750 million on Spotify. Impressive exposure for a singer (at that point) not out her teens!
Even before that song's success, Beadadoobee was having a pretty exciting year. She was featured on BBC's Sound of 2020, won the Radar Award at the 2020 NME Awards and was even invited to support The 1975 on their Music for Cars Tour. And in July she announced her debut album, releasing lead single 'Care' at the same time.
Last month, I heard 'Worth It' for the first time on Radio 1 and was so impressed I took a note of it for further inspection. It was a nostalgic indie rock song with a bubble gum chorus and, in all honesty, pretty darn addictive! In truth, the album isn't too far off that description either.
It perhaps isn’t on the same level as her American counterpart Soccer Mommy, whose album color theory is one of the best indie rock albums released this year, but it’s a strong debut full of slacker rock anthems, both sugary and laid back in sound.
The songs are anthemic, ready for big headline festival slots and she's only going to get bigger. Her sound is one described as 'Bedroom Pop', a seemingly teenage angsty catch-all genre which includes Soccer Mommy, Billie Eilish and Rex Orange County.
Produced by Pete Robertson, formerly of The Vaccines, it’s music you’d expect to hear on teen indie romcoms like Juno or Scott Pilgrim, soundtracking teenage tales of romance and sadness. It's ambitious and polished, ready for radio play.
Ok, so it can be a little bit repetitive at points and certainly does drag near the end, but it'll certainly be interesting to see how her career develops in the coming years. What a brilliant sound, nostalgic yet fresh. I'm believing the hype, for now.