Beabadoobee

by Claudio Lancia
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If we had to take a snapshot of Generation Z rediscovering the grainy allure of electric guitars, the face of Beatrice Laus, aka Beabadoobee, would be front and center. Born in the Philippines but raised in London, she managed to turn her own bedroom into an alchemical laboratory where candid lo-fi meets Nineties grunge aesthetics. Starting almost as a lark, with a secondhand guitar, she built a sonic world able to speak to TikTok teenagers and Pavement and Sonic Youth nostalgists alike.
Her debut is a whisper: her first EPs, among which the emblematic “Lice” (2018) stands out, present us with an introverted singer-songwriter, all bedroom pop and acoustic melancholy. But it's a cocoon destined to open quickly. With “Fake It Flowers“ (2020), Beabadoobee picks up the Fender and turns up the amps. The contrast between her almost childlike voice and the noisy guitar explosions forms a duality that would become her trademark, between distorted riffs and sugary melodies.
If the debut was a tribute to the past, with “Beatopia“ (2022) Beatrice expands her own universe: no longer just distortion, but openings toward folk-pop, toward bossa nova, toward hazy electronics. The songwriting grows denser, the arrangements more intricate, and the production (often handled by her friend Jacob Bugden) becomes crystalline without losing the handmade soul that made her famous.
With “This Is How Tomorrow Moves“ (2024), recorded at the legendary Shangri-La Studios under the supervision of Rick Rubin, Beabadoobee makes the definitive leap. The nostalgic sheen gives way to more mature, self-aware songwriting. It's an album of transition and assertion, where pop meets an almost jazzy structure in places, confirming that the “Nineties revival queen” label now fits her far too snugly.
In September 2026 comes “Pylon”, on which electric guitars return to the forefront and Beatrice hosts – among others – Brendan Yates (Turnstile), Chino Moreno (Deftones), Hayley Williams (Paramore) and Evan Stephens Hall (Pinegrove).