Today, September 28th, Beabadoobee released her new single How Was Your Day? via Dirty Hit Records. The song was recorded outside the studio, in her boyfriends garden, during the national lockdown. It is the fourth teaser that the London-born musician has shared in advance of her upcoming EP, due for release on the 16th October.
@zanelowe @applemusicHow Was Your Day? is a stripped-back track, typical of Beabadoobee, who is known for her lo-fi bedroom sound. The only instrumentation present is the jangly acoustic guitar which accompanies the singer’s soothing vocals. Beabadoobee said that the song is about ‘all the relationships [she] neglected when [she] was away from home…’.
The song’s words: ‘we haven’t talked in a while// forgotten how you used to smile… and I miss getting angry at you’, poignantly embody this idea. Beabadoobee says she wanted to emphasise the rawness of the lyrics by using simple recording methods and including all ‘the little mistakes and vocal wobbles‘.
The music video, which also came out today, is equally lo-fi in production methods; adding to the overall intimacy of the project. In it, Beabadoobee is joined by her friends and boyfriend. We see naively shot scenes of them messing around in the rehearsal room or holding hands on the grass. The clips have been made to look aged with a retro affect, matching the sentimental tone of the song.
Beabadoobee explains that she ‘wanted the music video to feel nostalgic to [her], to include all the people [she] cared about.’This DIY element has always been present in her music. In 2017, she wrote and recorded Coffee in her bedroom. When she uploaded it to Youtube, she was never expecting the response it received.
After Coffee, which went viral almost overnight, Beabadoobee released an equally mellow cover of The Moon Song. Once she signed to the record label Dirty Hit, home to Wolf Alice and the 1975, she got to work on her first EP Lice (again a simple and stripped back collection of heart-felt songs). Angry Song, on this EP, was a short song and catchy song about teenage angst.
It was this track that hinted at the edgier side of Beabadoobee that would come out over the next couple of years. 2019’s She Plays Bass saw her switch in the acoustic guitar for electric, and had a faced paced drum section too. 2020’s Care felt a bit like early Christina Aguilera – with a strong percussive element and girl power lyrics. Her new track is a return to her more mellow stuff, so it will be interesting to see what Beabadoobee’s upcoming album will sound like as a whole.
