Photo by Erika Kamano

After two really solid albums of fully-ampled and caffeinated alternative-pop between 2020’s promising debut, Fake It Flowers, and 2022’s sophomore standout, Beatopia, beabadoobee went for that indie prestige title with her last album in 2024’s This Is How Tomorrow Moves, by linking up with Rick Rubin in the studio and focusing her dreamy eyes on the folky-pop side of her sound. It was a safe success that catapulted her into arenas, but playing it safe isn’t the beabadoobee these pages want to hear her funneling her creativity toward. The edge is where all the better parts come into view.

With “Sun Has Set” — the lead single from Bea Laus’ third album, Pylon — it sounds like she knows that her home is there. She’s surrounding herself with better people, this time around, too. The effort boasts guest appearances from everyone from Hayley Williams, the 1975’s Matty Healy, Turnstile’s Brendan Yates, Basement’s Andrew Fisher, and even former Title Fight guitarist Shane Moran, who co-wrote and produced a majority of the album alongside Gianluca Buccellati.

beabadoobee’s pivot into her own pillow-y version of the pit works perfectly in the listen’s hardcore-pop fusion of thick-riffed guitars feeding Lau’s sugar-coated irreconcilable spite. “When I say, ‘We’ll never be friends’ / I mean, we’ll never pretend,” she exclaims. “Fuck that, you can never run back to me now.” This goes harder than it should. Cue the jokes: “Welcome back, Title Fight,” when what you really mean to say is “Welcome back, beabadoobee.”

Directed by: Jake Erland

beabadoobee’s Pylon will be released September 18th on Dirty Hit / Interscope Records.