Beabadoobee’s new song, “Sorry,” is the perfect example of the British-Filipino singer and songwriter’s adeptness at combining angst and angelic vocals to create alternative rock bangers. The 20-year-old rocker enters even darker territory in the second single to be released from her forthcoming debut album, Fake It Flowers, a far cry from the soft girl anthem “Coffee” that launched her to instant recognition in 2017 (and later, TikTok recognition, with Powfu’s remix in 2020). Instead of romance, this new track focuses on a dying friendship.
“Sorry” arrived on Aug. 5 with a music video that perfectly syncs with its bittersweet lyrics. The video opens on an overcast metropolis, color graded as if it were Gotham in The Dark Knight Rises, instantly setting the mood for Beabadoobee’s lyrics that are so unapologetic, she’s compelled to shout-sing “Sorry” over and over in the song’s fiery end — hence the track’s name. But back to the beginning: we see Beabadoobee throw down a bouquet of flowers before she sings, “Said I had to see you, but I don’t, and I won’t, and I won’t / To think I was just like you, all alone, skin to bone, skin to bone.”
Meanwhile, Beabadoobee is making this confession in an underground corridor with just enough lighting for an unsettling horror film, before she eventually emerges through a door into a meadow of flowers. Despite the setup for the perfect metaphor — Beabadoobee has crawled out of the “dark place” that the person she is singing to is stuck in — she nevertheless breaks down into the song’s heart-wrenching, guitar-driven climax; AKA, the main apology.
The song overall is an apology to a friend, which Beabadoobee explains in a press release obtained by HollywoodLife. She writes, “[I’m] confessing my mistakes in a friendship and watching someone who I love break down and fade away as a person,” adding, “It’s the idea of dismissing something because it felt too close to home and a personal reminder to never take for granted what that person could have had.”
With its moody guitar chords and grungy vibe, “Sorry” is also reminiscent of female-driven alternative rock from the ’90s and early 2000’s (a la No Doubt), an era that Beabadoobee’s music is often compared to amongst fans and music critics. She made this observation herself after dropping the first single from her upcoming album, “Care,” on July 14.
“I also think [‘Care’ is] very ‘end credit scene’ for like, a 2000s chick flick where the girl finally gets with the boy at the end and then ‘Care’ starts playing and they’re driving down the road or some shit like that,” Beabadoobee told i-D in a recent interview while discussing her album’s lead single.
Beabadoobee considers her overall debut album, due for release on Oct. 16, to be a “very female-sounding record, very female-empowering,” she further told the outlet. Despite a worldwide pandemic putting a wrench in her plans to perform at Coachella and tour with Phoebe Bridges and The 1975, Beabadoobee has since shifted focus to work on an “unnamed future project” with the latter band’s members, Matty Healy and George Daniel, according to i-D.