Album Review: This Is How Tomorrow Moves by beabadoobee

By Ansharah Shakil, September 7, 2024—

Singer-songwriter Beatrice Kristi Ilejay Laus, known as beabadoobee waited two years between her first album Fake flowers and her second, Beatopia. Another two years after the release of BeatopiaLaus released her latest album, This is how tomorrow moves, on August 9th. This is how Tomorrow moves is a triumph of indie rock, Laus' graceful step forward in her music career and a determined step into the future, just as the album title suggests.

Combining the album's introspectiveness with lyrics and vocals that are elegant in their simplicity, Laus exudes the same winning, sophisticated and unequivocally honest quality that characterizes her discography. It's nostalgia at its finest, harking back to '90s rock and 2000s radio, with a timeless refinement of sound. Elliott Smith, one of Laus's biggest influences, is directly and appropriately referenced on the album's quiet, waltzing closer, “This is How It Went.”

The commercially successful first single and album opener “Take a Bite” is effortlessly catchy. The entire composition is such that it gets into your bloodstream and you remember the lyrics and melodies hours after the first listen. On “Take a Bite,” Laus channels Fiona Apple, which she does throughout the album, with lots of piano and an emphasis on vocals – even in the lyrics of the bossa nova track “Cruel Affair.” But despite all these clever homages, Laus' sound remains her own.

In some places This is how Tomorrow moves misses the momentum and vitality of Laus and her band on the 2019 EP Space Cadetthe risk of addiction 'Fake Flowers's “Worth It” or the overwhelming, beautiful rush of Beatopia's “10:36” and “Talk.” A lack of energy means that “Coming Home” is pretty forgettable and production-wise, a mess. “One Time” would fall into the same monotonous pattern if it weren't for that hilarious outro.

But tracks like “California,” a vibrant and crisp showstopper, make up for it. Laus' smooth falsetto on the edge of the chorus and bridge provides the perfect contrast to the jangling chords and thumping drums, with each part of the whole precisely shaped. The cathartic grunge-rock track “Post” is another highlight. Then there's “Ever Seen,” the sweetest love song on the album, stunning in its achingly real emotion. The instrumentals are as dreamy and evocative as Laus' vulnerable vocals. It feels like a complete story, from Laus, starting with “The highest I think I've ever been / Said I had the prettiest eyes he'd ever seen” in the first chorus and ending with “And when I get too high and I can't breathe / I can't lie, he has the prettiest eyes I've ever seen” in the bridge. The latter transforms the song and shifts the ground.

A recurring theme on the album is growing up, whether it's growing up tired of waiting for your boyfriend to grow up on the jazzy “Real Man” or feeling like a little kid looking for validation from his dad on the poignant piano ballad “Tie My Shoes.” Or the conviction to keep going, to move forward, to take the next step and jump into the water without restraint on “Beaches,” Laus' own favorite song. For “Girl Song,” Laus goes through all the confusion, self-doubt and insecurity she feels on a daily basis to seek understanding. “I keep making the same mistakes / I guess there's still a lot to prove,” she sings, both frustrated and gentle with herself. In moments like these, she's so human, it's impossible not to be touched.

The back and forth of the guitar in “The Man Who Left Too Soon” sits alongside wistful lyrics like “In a state where I find comfort in familiar places / That I know the sadness is only temporary / It comes and goes / Like the weather in summer.” It’s an ode to her art: She sings about writing songs like all the songs she loves to listen to, and about writing to heal rather than hurt. On This is how tomorrow moves, beabadoobee finds peace. On the table is responsibility and maturity, a security that is not fearless, but all the more impressive because it overcomes fear and looks to the future.