Beabadoobee - the singer with one of the most unconventional names in music - has finally released her third studio album, This Is How Tomorrow Moves, which dropped everywhere on the 9th of August!

The Filipino-British singer-songwriter gained traction with her viral hit Coffee through TikTok, and her career has skyrocketed ever since! She was nominated for the BRITs Rising Star Award in 2020, and only last year opened for Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’! 

As a fan of her previous album, Beatopia, I knew I had to review it.

Perhaps the biggest change we see before even listening to the album, would be the cover artwork. Beatopia, her previous LP, featured hand-drawn ‘monsters’ and ‘fairies’, depicting a world Bea had created in her imagination as a child, but This Is How Tomorrow Moves’features a grown up, matured Bea, posing behind a blue backdrop (or if you’re lucky and picked up the alternative cover version: a red backdrop).

The album pretty much carries her signature indie style, with the first track Take A Bite reminding us of the Bea we know and love - we’re back again in her little world of music. This gives us a blissful but peculiar feeling, like we’ve heard it before. It gives us a smooth transition from what came before, to now. 

The lyrics are very much in hindsight - like she’s looking back, as a more mature version of herself, telling us how she feels; what she wishes she would have done. This record definitely describes a coming-of-age.

Feelings soon change though, with Real Man - a sassy, confident song with country vibes, where we realise that in her time away, Bea has blossomed into a more confident version of herself. 

Then we reach Girl Song, which brings us down to reality a bit.  It is a devastatingly beautiful representation of feeling unworthy: ‘Waking up to hardly recognising my own face/Just a stranger in the mirror thinking, oh what a shame’. It reminds us that we can’t be on a high all the time, and we do need time to reflect.

Despite the sad tones, Bea’s fanbase will appreciate it. Mark my words - this will be the song they beg for on the tour setlist! The atmosphere is perfect, and is so direct: she is singing alone at the piano.

We are uplifted again, through Coming Home, which gives us a particular vintage feeling from the guitar chords and the vocals. The production on this album by the way - is top notch. No wonder, considering it was produced by the legendary Rick Ruben, known for working with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and AC/DC. I think he has inspired this vintage sound.

Overall, it is a confident album. Bea is letting her feelings be known. She is looking back on parts of her life, and reflecting what it’s like to be on that rollercoaster - we have highs and we have lows, but through this record somewhere she finds her middle ground. 

Rating: 3/5

The fan in me does prefer Beatopia, as it feels more complete (with the Beatopia Cultsong intro), letting me get lost in her little world, among the fairies and monsters, but this album is strong, and it shows her growth - Beabadoobee is here, and here to stay.

Beabadoobee tours her new album, This Is How Tomorrow Moves this autumn, in America and Canada, before hitting the road in the UK, starting at the O2 Academy in Glasgow, on the 11th of November. 

Review by Kyle Horne/Kyle’s Tour Diaries. All rights reserved.

Album art copyright owned by Beabadoobee.