“Care” is Beabadoobee’s new song, and the first single off her soon-to-be-released debut album, Fake it Flowers. With twangy, slightly distorted guitars and a steady, thudding drumbeat, it evokes a feeling of early 90s nostalgia, despite it being released just this year. “Care” is the sort of song you’d blast out of your radio while driving down a highway with your windows rolled down: it’s catchy, energetic, and has some headbang-worthy guitar solos.
However, this isn’t necessarily a happy song, despite how it sounds. In the song, Bea angrily sings, “I don’t need your sympathy/ stop saying you give a sh*t/ ’cause you don’t really care,” telling people who don’t understand what she’s been through to stop giving her false pity.
Bea made herself known through more acoustic EPs like Loveworm and Patched Up, so her 2019 EP Space Cadet was a sharp deviation from her earlier works. This is due to these songs being filled with electric guitars and 90s rock influence, even having one of the song titles being called “I Wish I Was Stephen Malkmus.”
Overall, “Care” is a huge step up in Bea’s musical journey. Although the sound of it is very similar to the songs off Space Cadet, it’s much more polished and refined, almost like Bea has finally grasped what she wants in her music and effectively put it into use.