The latest record from the now 21-year old artist known as Beabadoobee, is her fifth overall EP, and follows the massive success she experienced on her debut LP Fake It Flowers. A lot of this record, called Our Extended Play, was co-written with members of The 1975, including front-man Matty Healy and George Daniel. Her collaboration with the veteran hit-makers pays major dividends as she has released four of her most immediately gripping and urgent songs to date.
Our Extended Play opens on the right foot with the brilliantly constructed “Last Day on Earth” that features some faint backing vocals from Healy to bring depth to Beabadoobee’s tender voice. The song is largely constructed around a looped electric guitar riff that doesn’t stray too far from its original composition. She sings passionately on the second verse, “You made it along / You got a problem with Peter, you got a problem with John / You can’t go on / All this follow me shit / I want to get fucked up at home / Be naked alone / And turn up my phone / Because this song I wrote is just so fucking sick, it goes…” The song has a lot of the same vibes of The 1975’s “Me and You Together Song,” but Beabadoobee’s trademark vocal delivery allows the song to really feel fresh.
”Cologne” features a lot more intricate guitar parts than the opener and was an obvious choice of a second single from this set. What she does well on this song is to channel more interesting and heavier guitar tones to balance out her soft voice. She even ponders about her self-worth in her lyrics, “Am I attractive? / Tell me, am I good enough? / Lately I’ve been on and off / I think I’ve heard too much, my wrists are numb / Heard too much, my limbs are numb.” More of her trademark soft-spoken vocals are felt in the ballad “Animal Noises,” that eventually crescendos to a crowd-pleasing finish. The chorus of, “I miss the mornings I spent making animal noises with you / I just need someone to hold but I guess that I’m getting too old / It’s something I keep getting told / I guess that I’m getting too old for this,” is beautifully constructed and showcases her growth as a writer.
The EP rounds out on the perfect note with the pop bliss of “He Gets Me So High.” The second verse features some more prominent guest vocals from Healy as they trade vocal barbs of, “He gets fed and lives under my bed / It’s been said, that it’s all just in my head / (Are you feeling alive?) / I’ll come back when I meet you / (Just pretend I’ll be fine) / I need to know that I want you / (You need reflecting of mind) / When you know that I / I always end up coming back to you.” The song really takes off and leaves the listener wanting much more of this sound in (hopefully) the very near future.
As great as Fake It Flowers is, Our Extended Play showcases a bit more variety to the sounds and tones to Beabadoobee’s style, and makes everyone look forward to this exciting new direction in her songwriting. It’s clear that her urgency to create these four gripping songs only speaks to her ability to convey such a wide range of emotions in short works of art. The future couldn’t be any brighter for this young artist.