beabadoobee – 2026
★★★☆☆
After two years of relative silence, beabadoobee makes a respectable return, though much more rough around the edges than before.
The main thing that sets this new beabadoobee album apart from her past works is her diving into rougher textures and forgoing her more familiar acoustic sound, with many songs bordering on grunge. She emboldens this further by taking on collaborations with Brendan Yates of Turnstile and Hayley Williams of Paramore, undeniably big fish in their respective scenes.
That said, a lot of Pylon struggles to be much of anything except ‘another beabadoobee song,’ even with the jump in genres. This isn’t to discredit her, she’s absolutely talented in both her vocals and instrumentation, and you can only do the same trick so many times until it becomes overdone. Attempts to change her sound are made on this album, but they often fall flat in that regard, especially because she only seems to want to do the rougher sound on every other track. Lyrically, it’s also much of the same she’s done before. Again, not a bad thing, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Some songs do pack a hefty punch emotionally though, namely ‘Satellite’ and ‘Radio.’ And, of course, it’s dazzling vocals-wise.
‘Satellite’ proves to be the best product of Pylon by far, as beabadoobee channels everything she’s already poured into the record and turns it up even further into a fitting last hoorah for the album. It feels incredibly rewarding at the end of the album, a very genuine example of realized potential. If it is any indication of what future music from beabadoobee will sound like, we’re in good hands.
Overall, Pylon, while lacking that really lets it stand out, is noteworthy as a precursor for the music that beabadoobee will go on to make if she continues in this grittier direction.
Favorite Track(s): Satellite, Radio, Pylon
Written by Michéal Doran
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