Mixtape Review: Baby Queen - 'The Yearbook'
Welcome, Class of 2021. It’s time to relive memories with The Yearbook.
A new record from London-based artist Baby Queen, The Yearbook is a remastered reminiscence of youth, love, pain and every other feeling everyone has felt from their younger years and beyond. Beginning with stating how Baby Queen, real name Arabella Latham, states how she “hates [her] yearbook”, it’s time to get back to school days and rewrite the narrative.
One of the latest signings to Polydor, Latham takes on that 2020s electronic feel-good freedom to bring out her full potential. The mixtape properly kicks off with single ‘Raw Thoughts’; a summer vibe that flows well with Latham’s vocals, put together with thrilling percussion that sets the scene. It’s audibly scenic and as fresh as seaside air - something the world needs and missed greatly due to the global pandemic.
‘You Shaped Hole’ is the noteworthy love song of the tape. It plays the role of a danceable beat for a downfall romance of a story, and while the lyrics sing of pain and grief from a lost relationship, it also comes across as an anthem to fight through the period to a brighter and happier future. Whether that’s on one’s own, in a new relationship, or with friends and loved ones.
There is an elegantly produced track in ‘These Drugs’, which can act as a metaphor and a literal description. The lyrics are about self-destructive habits surfacing to mask the pain of life: alcohol and narcotic consumption. It’s a relatable anthem to the neurodivergent community as without adequate support or funded services, these are the easiest and most dangerous coping mechanisms they turn to. “All I ever do is cry”, Latham sings in the chorus to tell the listener what happens as a result of these methods. They’re not right, they’re not effective, but until the world and its leaders improve mental health support, it’s the only thing most people have.
Not dissimilar to flipping its pages years beyond graduation, The Yearbook reads as a new story with a new character in every track and can open everyone’s eyes that these lives are real and if they live it, that they’re not isolated. Everyone has lived good and bad, lucky and unlucky, loved and alone - no matter if it’s you, a friend, a parent, a lover.
Bring back the diversity of life then and now. Time to read The Yearbook.
Words by Jo Cosgrove