My fellow Beabadoobee stans can probably relate to the anticipation I felt for our favorite indie singer-songwriter, Beatrice Laus’, latest single ever since she began teasing it. As she did not release any new music since July 2022 with her second album, Beatopia, Bea made our Valentine’s Day a little sweeter with her release of Glue Song. The dreamy love ballad is her first while in her new relationship with Jacob Erland, who is her guitarist and also directed the Glue Song music video.
Bea’s familiar airy voice is combined with new subject matter in Glue Song. In a press release, she expressed, “I usually write these songs that are sad, in the past with my writing even when it doesn’t sound sad looking back the lyrics usually have been. “For the first time this is just me being really happy.” Bea comments on the refreshing nature of the song, which she wrote while on tour in Asia and Australia, in comparison to others in her discography and in terms of her healing process. Glue Song is about pure and blissful love, contrasted with her usual melancholy sound.
When performing Glue Song on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series, she also spoke to the simplicity of the lyrics: “[there are] no lyrics with double meanings or some weird sad undertone,” instead, “just a plain and simple, in your face, love song.” In its opening, Bea sings “I’ve never known someone like you / Tangled in love, stuck by you / From the glue.” I think it’s safe to say we are all stuck by the glue to Beabadoobee. The song, only 2 minutes and 15 seconds in length, has been playing nonstop in the back of my head. The feel-good, catchy lyrics make it one of my all time favorite Bea songs.
Adding another layer of personalization, Bea traveled back to her hometown of Ilo Ilo in the Philippines to film her music video. She tweeted, “i’ve never smiled so big in a music video before. i wanted to capture how beautiful ilo ilo is as i haven’t seen much of it on the internet and i needed that when i was growing up.” Overall, Glue Song was everything we needed for Valentine’s Day: heartfelt, cheerful, and just a little bit cheesy.