beabadoobee has announced her highly anticipated fourth studio album, Pylon, set for release on September 18th via Dirty Hit and Interscope Records. Serving as the follow-up to her UK Number 1 album This Is How Tomorrow Moves, the stark 14-track record is named after the sprawling electricity towers that dot global roadsides, structures that served as a psychological anchor back to friends and family during intense periods of disconnection and isolation while touring over the last few years. The title also pulls double duty as a metaphor for Laus’ spiky, forceful new direction, trading her softer indie-pop textures for crashing waves of guitar distortion that mirror the electrical crackle of power lines while addressing the repetitive anxieties of your mid-twenties.
The announcement is spearheaded by the release of the lead single “Sun Has Set,” a direct, unvarnished track adapted from raw diary entries containing words Laus once thought she’d never be able to say out loud. Channelling a sense of petty, confrontational tunnel vision regarding an unresolved relationship, the single arrives with an immersive, first-person music video directed by her partner and longtime visual collaborator Jake Erland. Musically, “Sun Has Set” introduces a record that dives straight into the alternative rock sub-genres Laus has long championed, moving deliberately into a sonic landscape that is noticeably harsher, more direct, and deeply rooted in classic grunge, Midwest emo, and ’90s alternative radio rock.
On the single, she states,
A lot of the songs on this record are things I wish I could have said to someone. This song [‘Sun Has Set’] has this petty tunnel vision—it’s like, I hate you. You’re gonna stay here and listen to how much I hate you. Because I never got to say that.
Reflecting the massive critical and industry respect she has amassed throughout her career, Pylon boasts a heavy-hitting, collaborative roster of alternative icons contributing straight to the music. Paramore’s Hayley Williams lends her vocals to the empowering, anti-fairweather-friend anthem “Nothing to Prove,” while Turnstile frontman Brendan Yates brings a moody, nuanced vocal force to “Powerlines.” The star-studded tracklist is rounded out by creative input from Pinegrove’s Evan Stephens Hall, Deftones’ Chino Moreno, and Title Fight’s Shane Moran, alongside specialised studio production work on “Write Me A Letter” from her longtime friends and Dirty Hit labelmates Matty Healy and George Daniel of The 1975.
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