beabadoobee Fake It Flowers LP

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beabadoobee has navigated the world of global touring, viral fame and musical creation to work towards a dazzling debut album. Fake It Flowers is a testament to this. Bea adopts a mature sound, where her familiar warm, fuzzy lo-fi lies between strings & melodies, bringing the raw honesty of her DIY roots into a new era.

The London Filipina just turned 20, but tunes like 'I Wish I Was Stephen Malkmus' won her fans (including Malkmus), with her fresh Gen Z take on Pavement-style guitar hooks. Fake It Flowers is full of flannel hooks and Sassy-era sarcasm: There's even a straightforward love song where she muses, 'You are the smell of pavement after the rain/You are the last empty seat on a train.'

Prior to becoming a TikTok sensation, Bea Kristi helmed lo-fi bedroom pop musings inspired by Pavement and The Moldy Peaches (see her smash hit 'Coffee', Space Cadet and Loveworm EPs). Her music has since evolved to be more era-inclusive, with numerous Fake It Flowers tracks nodding to the grunge and alternative rock distortion of early Smashing Pumpkins and even Nirvana. Both dream pop and power pop also make their way into the beabadoobee sound palette, at times closely recalling Mazzy Star and The Cardigans, as well as Avril Lavigne - one of her beloved favorites. An obsession with yesteryear doesn't always work for an artist for one reason or another, but for beabadoobee, it's a vehicle for refining her sound and finding her voice. And we'd be straight-up lying if we said it hasn't been a fun ride witnessing her growth.

On 'Fake It Flowers', Beabadoobee truly established herself as one-of-a-kind artist, able to pay her dues to her beloved genres of choice (grunge-pop and '90s alt-rock) while contorting their limits - and painting them over with a modern finish. Her sprawling, dynamic debut LP a sharp and remarkably candid effort, skyward riffs effortlessly capturing the conflicted nature of young love: the unhinged glee of the early days and the emotional emptiness of ensuing heartbreak. It was affecting and intimate, a clear cathartic release with confessions, hopes and dreams to hold onto.

The songwriter's debut LP, Fake It Flowers, takes on '90s nostalgia, offering hints of Lush, Elliott Smith, Veruca Salt, Sonic Youth and...Pavement. But Bea Kristi still makes the record feel innately hers, penning deeply personal lyrics about mental health struggles, difficult past relationships and finding love with her longtime boyfriend.