Beabadoobee - Fake it Flowers Review

Overall, Fake It Flowers elevates beabadoobee from her lo-fi pop star status to modern day grunge rocker.

Bedroom Pop-cum-Slacker Rock superstar Beatrice Laus, better known as beabadoobee, has earned herself notoriety through a constant stream of releases, where you get the impression Bea simply loves writing music with her output of single after EP after short album after EP after single consistently since 2017. With ‘Coffee’ and ‘Moon Song’ in 2017, Patched Up in 2018, then Loveworm and Space Cadet in 2019, Bea has kept us busy enough to avoid overconsumption of her work. First album proper, Fake It Flowers, features five singles released in the run up, with lead single ‘Care’ charting well in the US Rock charts — not too shabby for a London ex rocker dipping into the heavily saturated alternative rock world. 

Fake It Flowers will undoubtedly reap the successes ensured by YouTube popularity and 1975 support slots. Bea is very much a rock star for pop fans of the awkward, lost, internet generation. She’s adored by Harry Styles and Taylor Swift, and cites Elliot Smith and Pavement as influences; this all makes sense with her poppy and sentimental side meeting grittily pained riffs and candied vocals. Perhaps the much more guitar-driven album suffers a little from its length in the second half but here’s a great deal of texture, grunge and vulnerability to enamour.

Album opener and lead single ‘Care’ is the album at its best, and is the best example of Bea’s immediacy and wealth of hooks. A chorus of “cares” and “yeahs”, prepackaged for screaming from the bleachers, underpins a song celebrating individuality and coming into womanhood while acknowledging the loneliness which often accompanies this. As the album continues with ‘Worth It’ and ‘Dye it Red’, we continue our assessment of the concerns and traumas of youth. ‘Dye it Red’ laments the loneliness of an uninterested partner in a relationship, and uses hair dye as a method of empowerment, while ‘Worth It’ sees a struggle in a friendship. The singer struggles with her own self-worth and damages herself by comparison. All three opening tracks could have been lifted from the 90s with their jangling riffs pained, angry lyrics and ample fuzz.

Things slow down in the short interlude ‘Back To Mars’, where we find Bea struggling to understand the politics of a new chapter of a relationship. This segues into ‘Charlie Brown’ which sees Bea at her most open, singing candidly about self harm and the “old habit” - however she has a comic strip featuring Snoopy and Charlie Brown tattooed on her arm, which acts as preventative of self-harm and serves as a reminder of her loved ones, her “Snoopys” The chorus of “Throw it Away” acts as a celebratory acknowledgment that she has broken free with plenty of anthemic quality to spare that enhances it. A poignant sincerity underlines her message here, which could not be more important. The leadingly titled slower number ‘Emo Song’ is sure to act as tender tearjerker for many, taking another personal note and singing of childhood and issues of trust, including calls back to ‘Charlie Brown’ and of her history of self-harm. “Just the thought of you on my limbs” sings, before an outro of “It’s all your fault”.

Things stay dark in the single ‘Sorry’ which deals with Bea’s guilt of both unavailable for people who needed her and guilt for feeling better herself. She knows she couldn’t have done anything more to help these old friends, though still regrets that she couldn’t. The guitar lines are jittery and vocally in an outpouring of apology. As drum and guitar crash increasingly loudly, and Bea strives for louder apology, the song acts as a pure emotional offload. This eases into the much poppier and softer ‘Further Away’, finding Bea in song about her experiences being picked on as a child and the ultimate acceptance of how far she’s come beyond those experiences by accepting herself wholly. String arrangements, hovering vocals, and delicate riffs here are a pretty break from the recent anguish and sadness. 

‘Further Away’ certainly signifies a change in mood from the opening half of the record, progressing into ‘Horen Sarrison’: a sweet if slightly indifferent, heavily self-referential love song to Bea’s partner Soren Harrison. The song’s closing line “I’m sorry I’m gone so often” links directly into the next track, ‘How Was Your Day?’ which uses a soft vocal atop gentle strings while Bea sings of the hardest part of her journey, of being away from home and missing her aforementioned Snoopys. Final single from the album ‘Together’ picks up pace by returning to the guitar sound of the first half of the record. Bea here acknowledges her own faults and mistakes, via pure bubblepunky vocals and ticking drum beats. She battles her inner monologue, unsure of whether she would be better alone or together. She is sure, though, that she is capable now of being alone if she wanted to be. ‘Yoshimi, Forrest, Magdalene’ closes the album with an extreme look into the future as a childlike love song about marriage and future children, named Yoshimi, Forrest and Magdalene after the Flaming Lips album, film Forrest Gump, and Pixies song respectively. 

Overall, Fake It Flowers elevates beabadoobee from her lo-fi pop star status to modern day grunge rocker. She sings tenderly of her own history of self-harm, relationship issues, and of empowerment through hair dye - all important messages for the youth this album mostly addresses itself to. The first half of the record finds Bea opening up about her struggles, consolidating her experiences and turning them into an opportunity of acceptance of herself. The second half throws fewer punches and fades to a gentler mood, meaning it sparkles less brightly with stuffy love songs and tongue-in-cheek thrashes about Bea’s future babies. This is a good record, and could be a solid foundation for Bea to escape the bedroom pop and rise towards the top of the modern alternative rock scene.