- Take a step sideways into the melodramatic world of Bec Sandridge, its gyrating veneer melodies and clamoured Devil’s advocate lyricism. Slipping into something more uncomfortable, Sandridge’s debut album TRY + SAVE ME preys on the predicaments of the artists’ personal anxieties in a tell-tale of her reinvention. Running up that hill ready to make a deal with God, TRY + SAVE ME explores the interventions between individualism, identity and gender with an artful yet tongue-in-cheek approach that has become uniquely her own.
The first glimpse of the debut album I’LL NEVER WANT A BF details her most openly personal work yet, pillaged upon theatrics and twists of modern romanticism. Sandridge dishes out her devilish temperament into this song, levelling her feelings with honesty and integrity, as she painstakingly picks apart her Mother’s prying attempts to convert her sexuality. This exhilarating power-pop song will carry you away in a wave of '80's-tinged synths and driving percussion. The acrobatic vocals beckon between choruses, giving everything she touches a subtle sense of theatre. Trampling over traditional white weddings and the fleets of single men thrown at her, I’LL NEVER WANT A BF is an anthem that shows contentment within Bec Sandridge and the self-assurance we can all aspire to have, regardless of love interests.
The dark chivalry of TRY + SAVE ME only deepens as Sandridge dissects the estranged creatures living in her head with her first single STRANGER. Recorded and produced with Gab Strum of Japanese Wallpaper and Oscar Dawson of Holy Holy, Sandridge describes it as her fiercest, most manic work to date. “I will not leave my bed today, I’ve got a thousand things to do, I need a mental break, a holiday, somewhere to hide” - STRANGER was written during a trying struggle with image dysmorphia and depicts the anxiety that goes with seeing yourself as flawed. The commanding vocals glide to a peak, shadowed by an acapella chorus. The angular guitar work and sonic savagery of the synthesizer lunge forward into a full-blown dance track. In response to her finished work, Bec Sandridge admits that, even if she says it herself, this is the first time someone has been able to capture who she is holistically - “the ugly, the unhinged, the raucous”.
- Charlotte Jones.