Your New Ears #1: Madison Beer's "As She Pleases"

Don't wanna read the whole thing? Scroll down to the bottom to get the highlights.

Madison Beer, a sub-20 music phenomenon (see also: Khalid, Rich Brian, Lil Pump), dropped her first EP the day after Valentine's Day 2018 titled As She Pleases. The Jericho, NY (drink it in, maaaaaaaaan) native discovered fame some 5 years ago thanks to a Justin Bieber tweet of her owning Etta James' "At Last." A couple years, a ton of media attention, and a hit single later Beer has the world waiting to see if she's built to be the next Miley or if she's destined to be Billy Ray.

The 7-song EP clocks in at just over 20 minutes long, and Beer puts her best (or most proven) foot forward by leading off the cut with her chart-topping bop, "Dead." The song cleverly crafts its catchy hook around the "can't live without you" trope that many emotionally manipulative suitors keep in their arsenal. The song's bouncy tropical production is headlined by a warble-y staccato baseline and an ensemble dripping in reverb. Not much can be said about the song that hasn't already been said: it was a hit, and it was a hit because it knew exactly what it wanted to be: a breakup song for the dopa-meme generation.

In the proverbial "Darko Milicic" position of the EP (for my basketball fans out there), "Fools" has a tough act to follow. Continuing with the beach-ball-bouncy-echo-laden-production theme, the song does manage to separate itself from its popular predecessor with a more indie rock-influenced instrumental. Apart from maybe the EP's penultimate track "Teenager in Love," "Fools" is the only song on the EP that truly feels like a complete musical piece. The production adds a bit of spice to the tropical smoothie Beer established, and keeps the momentum going two tracks deep.

That momentum is immediately met with a confusingly abrupt transition to the "bedroom bop" style of "HeartLess." A trap-inspired set of hi-hats and a kick pattern that would make dvsn and producer Nineteen85 do a double take accompany an incessant "squeaking" sound on the instrumental. Just in case you didn't get the memo, this song is sexy. Right on the nose, but sexy nonetheless. 

"HeartLess" and its two succeeding tracks, "Tyler Durden" and "Home with You," take the feel of the album from a beach, to a bonfire, back to a beach. "Tyler Durden" is a purely acoustic cut, clocking in at 2:08 and feeling more like a well-mixed demo than a fully realized song. "Home with You" suffers similarly, but Beer keeps you just interested enough with her catchy hooks and vocal ability. "Tyler Durden" takes from Beer's YouTube cover star roots in that its guitar progression is simple, and the song allows for the next generation of YouTube singers to riff and run their way to success with a cover of their own. 

"Say it to My Face," the November-released second single from the EP, is just about a step up from "Tyler Durden" in its production, coming with a folk-indie-rock style of percussion and vocal slices. 

While it does feel like a full song, unlike some of its EP-mates, the follow-up single to "Dead" truly finds its strength in Beer's vocal ability. 

The EP offers a wide range of sounds and influences, going from the tropical boppy-ness on which Beer's blow up was founded and taking it all the way to a Doo-Wop inspired "Teenager in Love" (my personal favorite song on the EP). This, while impressive in consistency (there's really not a bad song on here), makes the project feel more like a handful of darts thrown at a wall at once than a calculated series of songs. However, it would be insane for me to expect Madison Beer's magnum opus to come following her single's success. 

After you have a chart topper like "Dead," your job isn't to pump out an "album" per se, but rather to show that you possess the skills and potential to stick around for more. Beer certainly does that on her first multi-track release, with impressive vocals reminiscent of Ariana Grande and Rihanna. Will this EP find its way into my rotation? Probably not. That isn't the point, though. The point is that we now know Madison Beer is working with some serious artillery, and her next (or rather first) comprehensive release will be something worth looking out for.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Production is fun and versatile, but it wears its influences on its sleeve and is somewhat lacking in originality overall.

• "Dead" is still a jam, "Teenager in Love" is a fun throwback, and "Tyler Durden" is in the books of all future YouTube cover artists.

• Madison Beer is an uber talented hook writer and vocalist, but has yet to decide what her true sound is going to be.

• "Home with You" is so forgettable that I had to look at the track listing to type it just now and the line "you got a nice face, big deal" is a real thing she says out loud.

• "HeartLess" is sexy but oddly placed in the project.

• Overall, this is more of an appetizer of what Madison Beer can offer in the future. She drips in natural ability and just might have that "it" factor that a true pop superstar needs. 

• Check back in a year, and she just might be bringing her "sorry not sorry" swagger to stadiums across the country.

BEST CASE: 5 years from now I'm still writing blog posts but wearing a tour shirt with her name on it.

WORST CASE: Back to YouTube with thee! (Where she'd do just fine continuing to kill covers with her stellar vocal chops)

FINAL SCORE: 5/10

-NF/NLB

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