Becky And The Birds Deput LP “Only Music Makes Me Cry Now” Out Now.
Photo Credit / Oscar Lindqvist
Swedish musician Thea Gustafsson – who writes, records, and produces under the moniker Becky and the Birds – has recently turned a new leaf, entering an era of creative freedom and emotional release with her self-produced debut album, Only Music Makes Me Cry Now, out now via 4AD / Remote Control Records.
Focus track ‘To trust you’ premiered via New Music Daily on Apple Music earlier this week. The single contributes an air of vulnerability to the LP’s emotively hard-hitting and sonically diverse soundscape through hypnotic looped vocals, stomping 808s, and transportive electric guitar.
Says Gustafsson of the track’s thematic content: “This song is for anyone who’s dealing with trust issues. When something has happened that broke your trust for someone, how do you find it again and not let it eat you up forever in every way possible? And most importantly, how do you trust yourself and your intuition without going insane? I wanted the production to work with this concept to soundtrack the madness and darkness that one can get stuck in.”
Thea Gustafsson began laying the groundwork for her debut Becky and the Birds album in 2021, during a time largely informed by a wide array of sources, including: insight from past collaborations with Dijon, Seinabo Sey, and Lapsley; obscure Bandcamp deep-dives; visits to live sets across London and her native Stockholm; a variety of media fixations (including Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine, Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, and Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth); and her emotional processing in the aftermath of a life-altering breakup. Upon returning to the studio, she was motivated to look inward and come to terms everything she was feeling, in addition to returning to her exploratory musical roots with the intention of staying eager, curious, and overall, brave. The resulting innovative, passionate, and vulnerable record — crafted with manipulations of her own voice and sampled audio-bites from her everyday life (including voicemails and natural city noise) — allows listeners to follow her through a time of intense healing and rediscovery, and highlights her distinct style and open-hearted approach more than ever.
Earlier this year, Gustafsson introduced her forthcoming debut record with two previous singles – an ethereal and intimate track entitled ‘When she holds me’, a gorgeous post-breakup lament entitled ‘I made my baby cry’ and a beautifully transportive sound bath of sleek hazy hooks and hypnotic drum tracks entitled ‘Anymore’. Notably, the incomparable Elton John recently played ‘I made my baby cry’ on his Rocket Hour radio show on Apple Music 1, noting that it is the “best record (he’s) heard in a long, long time”.
