After finding critical success with her last two EP’s, Beabadoobee mesmerizes listeners once again with her debut studio album Fake It Flowers released on Oct. 16 via Dirty Hit Records.
The Filipino-British singer, whose stage name comes from her finsta account, manages to carry her audience back to a late 1990s and early 2000s. Through a mellow yet resonant voice, she molds into an alternative rock mix cognizant of Gwen Stefani in her No Doubt phase, Hailey Williams of Paramore, Avril Lavigne and Mazzy Star lead singer Hope Sandoval.
She escapes the clichés and attaches her harmonies to a modern and youthful Gen Z string-powered sound. By intertwining older alternative, indie rock and post-grunge music with pop, Beabadobee touches base with fans varying from slacker rock to pop to shoegaze.
Beabadoobee pens all of the songs on the album alone and at twelve tracks long, Fake It Flowers is a project with significant replay value. Her releases have consistently grown, allowing her audience to witness the artist’s sound mature through a culmination of her experiences mentioned in her EPs and now through her album.
Standout songs include “Care,” “Sorry,” “Worth It,” “Yoshimi Forest Magdalene,” “Dye It Red,” “Charlie Brown” and “Together.”
This album feels like floating during the REM cycle of a dream. Catchy tracks manage to be simultaneously melancholic and upbeat.. The album is coherent, and the production by the unmistakable talents Pete Robertson and Joseph Roberts transport listeners back to the era of the Smashing Pumpkins or the Pixies.
One of Fake It Flowers’ issues may be the fact that Beabadoobee wears her influences right on her sleeve. The singer walks on a narrow tightrope, leaving the great production to balance out most of the sound and doesn’t do much to innovate and create something the audience hasn’t heard before.
Beabadoobee is lodged in her comfort zone which happens to be the essence of nostalgia. A minor issue could also be the lack of lyrical depth. After hearing Patched Up or Loveworm, her typical lyrics and flow does not hinder the album in the slightest.
Retaining Beabadoobee’s bedroom acoustic lo-fi image, Fake It Flowers gives listeners a tinge of what is to be expected of Beabadoobee as she continues to grow as an artist. This project is nothing short of ambient and may become a possible fall favorite for 2020.
