beabadoobee Welcomes Us Into Her World, 'Beatopia'
Beatopia, the sophomore studio album from the 22-year-old rock sensation, Beatrice Laus, better known as known as beabadoobee, is upon us. The shroom-fueled 14-song project is an intimate collaboration with her live guitarist Jacob Bugden that features co-production from Iain Berryman, and ultimately arrives as a deeply introspective body of work from an artist who feels wholly comfortable and at peace with existing within her world.
Though it could have been said that beabadoobee has painted hard yellow lines for her lane in music with the release of her debut album Fake It Flowers, the effort taken to diversify her sound with Beatopia is more than worthy of applause. The Filipino-Londoner steps into wonderful territories within her expanding soundscape as this sophomore effort provides fresh sonic offerings with moments like the traditional Parisian-evoking tune “the perfect pair” and the stylistic marriage attempted in the PinkPatheress-assisted “tinkerbell is overrated”. Additionally, across the entire LP are contributions from The 1975 frontman, Matty Healy. Healy’s help on the folk-anthem style record “Pictures of Us” is evident and bea shared with Apple Music that he also helped write the hook of the album’s closer with her.
We get classic beabadoobee with the early-2000s nostalgic alt-rock sound in “Talk”. Perhaps accidental, the single feels almost like a sonic bridge between Fake it Flowers and Beatopia. Songs like “See You Soon”, “10:36”, and the beachy bookend to Beatopia, “You’re here that’s the thing,” all encapsulate the messy and raw serving of sentiments that one might be ashamed to bring to light in any other context.
With the music production being so top-shelf and the authentic lyrical content being so unrestrained, you can only commend beabadoobee's courage to express one's past in the form of a personal soundscape that we’re invited to explore to our heart's content.
Speaking on the album, Bea says that it’s ultimately “about accepting my past and my actions, and seeing it as a part of me. It’s your life and you can do whatever you want, and if you make mistakes, it’s gonna help you for the end result – it’s all gonna mean something at the end. It’s definitely me getting over things about my self-image, and feeling comfortable in a general sense of my life and who I am. I’m still working on it.”
Having recently wrapped her U.S. tour opening for Halsey, this has been beabadoobee’s biggest year yet with performances at Coachella, Glastonbury, Gov Ball and more.
Listen to Beatopia below:
