Beabadoobee: Beatopia — In a word? Quality pop music

Filipino-British songwriter and Gen Z TikTok magnet Beatrice Laus (aka Beabadoobee) may be a veteran of sorts (she has been releasing music since 2017, self-taught via YouTube tutorials, inspired by the soundtrack to the 2007 movie Juno and the music of New York City’s anti-folk scene), but even with testimonials from the likes of Harry Styles and Taylor Swift she has yet to filter through to the broader public or even, good Lord forbid, a regular on daytime radio.

That will surely change with her second album. Released less than two years after her debut, Fake It Flowers (co-produced by Dubliner Joseph Rodgers), Beatopia contains the kind of pop songs that sound as effortlessly contemporary as they are influenced by people whose work we know only too well (these include Elliot Smith, Daniel Johnson and Pavement).

In other words, on the one hand, there is nothing to see here, please move on and stop creating a traffic jam; on the other, it is down to Beabadoobee’s ability to charm the socks off the listener with classy tunes. It’s easy to forget their familiarity.

The album is top-heavy with highlights but four, in particular, stand out: the baroque string-driven, three-minute perfect pop of Ripples, the summery salsa-pop vibes of The Perfect Pair, the adorable lilt of Lovesong, and the thumping beats of Tinkerbell is Overrated. In a word? Quality. beabadoobee.co.uk