beabadoobee – Loveworm
After my post about Patched Up It would be criminal of me not to write a bit about Loveworm and the part it played in the movement towards a new era of music from beabadoobee. This EP was the third project from bea under Dirty Hit released near the start of 2019. Loveworm is the first project of bea's to experiment with a move towards indie rock and away from a slower folk style. Tracks in this EP don't fully commit to this change and it is obvious why as beabadoobee gained her popularity through mostly solo projects with her just writing music in her room and uploading it to the internet as well as some collaborative work with Oscar Lang these first songs were slow, dreamy and simple. A far cry from the more indie pop style music she releases now.
As expected every song in this EP focuses on the theme of love with an emphasis on the ups, downs, and confusion integral to teenage relationships. The final song entitled “Soren” acting as tribute of sorts to her then-boyfriend Soren Harrison. bea has mentioned how the EP was formed around a rough patch in her relationship.
“I remember him [soren] calling me after listening to the whole EP, and he was like, “I figured out a lot of things,” and I said, “Holy shit, thanks Loveworm!”” – beabadoobee in an interview with Graham Corrigan for Complex UK
This EP was released shortly before I got to experience a bea gig, and it was prominently featured in the setlist, which included “Apple Cider,” “Disappear,” “Angel,” “Ceilings,” and “You Lie All The Time.” Since bea now has wayy more music, some of these classic songs are rarely performed at recent concerts. Making this setlist highly sought after by longtime Bea fans.
The overwhelming popularity of the less indie-folk style tracks such as Apple Cider clearly gave bea more courage to pursue this style more in the future with her next EP “Space Cadet” leaning hard into this*...
* I've written a post about Space Cadet, which will be out soon :D