Beabadoobee
This Is How Tomorrow Moves
DIRTY HIT
When Beabadoobee first linked with Rick Rubin to play him a few demos off of This Is How Tomorrow Moves, she described being “scared to take this opportunity” to work with the legendary producer, as it would remove her from the comfort of her West London flat. She’d ultimately take the leap, tripping to Rubin’s Shangri-La studio in Malibu where she’d reap the benefits of working with the industry giant. The album track “Beaches” commemorates the experience, as it sees Beabadoobee approaching the sandy shores of Southern California timid and anxious before letting the waves wash away the diffidence amidst a haze of electric guitar.
Her first full-length release since 2022’s Beatopia offers a glimpse into the maturation process of a young artist learning to accept responsibility for her part in past struggles and move toward a healthier future with her current partner. On opener “Take a Bite,” Bea confronts her emotional immaturity head on, reflecting on past relationships where she’d indulge in unhealthy cycles of creating “fabricated” issues and “craving expectations that are unattainable temptations.” She details how she’d only solve these problems with “a kiss on the lips,” opting to bury relational discord with physical intimacy rather than healthy communication. It’s a lovely bit of introspection by the songwriter, who ends the track trying to suppress the want to “do it all over again.”
Encouragingly, Beabadoobee further dissects the cyclical harm she’s suffered from and looks to move past it in her current relationship. “One Time” releases pent-up resentment over a shitty past fling, reflecting on her use of weed to escape relational problems and general unease. The animosity is doubled-down upon with angst-ridden soft rock backing the track that would sound at home on her 2020 debut Fake It Flowers. On “Real Man,” frustrations with the immaturity of the person she wants to get serious with are aired over a blues-influenced acoustic guitar. As the critiques get sharper, soulful keys and a steady half-note drum slide in, giving each attack on her ex’s manhood more bite.
The tone shifts with “Coming Home,” where she details the effort she’ll put into her current relationship to make sure the cycle is broken for good. With a sing-songy croon that would put Snow White to shame, Bea offers to do the dishes and take out the trash—even if it’s filled to the brim. The song floats over a waltz tempo that demands a dance in the kitchen with your partner, laughing with and loving one another as you both share the load of your relationship. It’s an intimate glimpse at a healthy partnership that Beabadoobee finds herself in for the first time in her life. When truly in love, even the mundane tasks of daily living are missed when you’re away from your partner, on tour or otherwise.
Elsewhere on the album, Beabadoobee takes stock of her self-image and anxiety over comparisons to others she unintentionally forces upon herself. The somber piano ballad “Girl Song” and quasi-surf-rock cut “A Cruel Affair” allow Beabadoobee to work through body image issues, condemning the social media–driven pressures that push her to devalue her own self-worth. Both songs come to emotionally affirming conclusions: the former validates the bad day that Beabadoobee is having without pressuring her with toxic positivity (no “get over it” vibes are welcome here), while the latter declares Bea a catch in her own right and flips a middle finger to the “cruel affair” that is the comparison of one’s success.
In stark contrast to the fabled escapist land of Beatopia that Beabadoobee welcomed us to a few years back, This Is How Tomorrow Moves is the Filipina-English artist’s brutally realist introduction to the emotional maturation and reflections she’s undergone in the past year. Whether through a look at childhood trauma that manifests in her inability to tie her shoes or a plea to her ex to let her use her music to heal the wounds he seems hellbent on reopening, this is Beabadoobee at her most vulnerable. With a hefty outpouring of love, we thank her for allowing us in.
