Beabadoobee released her fourth studio album, Pylon, on September 18, steering her sound toward something heavier and rougher. The record sets aside some of the softer indie textures of her earlier work in favour of distorted guitars and a rock edge drawn from 1990s alternative music and grunge. It arrives about two years after This Is How Tomorrow Moves and marks one of the clearest changes of tone in her career.
Born Beatrice Laus and based in London, the artist built an early following through home recordings before signing to Dirty Hit. Pylon keeps her on that label, released in partnership with Interscope Records, and brings in a wide cast of collaborators from across the rock and alternative world. The guest list reads as a survey of the scene she has moved into.
Hayley Williams of Paramore appears on the track Nothing To Prove, while Chino Moreno of Deftones features on the closing song, Satellite, which ends the album on a darker note. Brendan Yates of Turnstile, Evan Stephens Hall of Pinegrove, and Matty Healy and George Daniel of The 1975 also take part. Shane Moran of Title Fight co-wrote eight of the songs, helping steer the record’s heavier feel.
The lead single, Sun Has Set, laid out the louder approach that runs through the release. Other tracks, among them Switchblade, Write Me A Letter and Memories, sit with the uncertainty of early adulthood and the slow work of figuring out where one fits. The writing stays close to those doubts rather than trying to tie them off neatly.
Reviews framed Pylon as a confident step for an artist still in her mid-twenties. Rather than smoothing over unease, the album leans into it, matching bigger guitars and more forceful arrangements to its themes. For listeners who have followed her since the home recordings, the release points to a musician willing to change direction and test how far her sound can stretch. The album continues a steady climb that has taken her from bedroom uploads to festival stages, and it leaves the question of where she goes next firmly open.
