FEATURE:
Revisiting...
Bebe Rexha - Expectations
__________
I think that…
Better Mistakes was one of the more underrated albums from last year. The work of the New York-born artist Bebe Rexha, I do feel that this album warrants another spin. This feature re-examines and spotlights great albums from the past five years. Rexha’s solid 2018 debut, Expectations, is an album that did not get hugely positive reviews across the board, though there were a few positive reviews. I think that it deserved a lot better, as it is a really strong album. Many praised the album’s production and Rexha's vocal performance. Some highlighted the lyrics as being a little weak, generic or impersonal. Expectations debuted at number thirteen on the US Billboard 200 chart. On 23rd October, 2020 the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over a million units in the United States. I think that it is a bit strange that only three singles were released from Expectations. Many great or established Pop artists may put out four or five singles from an album. I Got You came out in 2016, Meant to Be in 2017, and I’m a Mess in 2018. That one single a year thing seems unusual! It would have been great to have one or two more singles released in 2018. That said, Rexha only put out four single from Better Mistakes. Regardless, I want to come to a couple of positive reviews for Expectations.
I am going to start off with an interview from NME. They chatted with her in 2018 around the release of her anticipated and brilliant debut album. In interviews, Bebe Rexha comes across as very personable and interesting. Definitely an artist who will go on to big things:
“‘Expectations’ is quite a loaded title. What does it mean?
“Oh man! I just think life is very unexpected. You expect to fall in love this way, to be successful this way… this is how you plan your life to go – you’ll get married and have kids and this and that – but life is always kinda like: ‘Na ah ah, I’m going to do it the way I want to!’ It’s good to keep your expectations kinda low so that you never know what to expect, and just go with the flow.”
It follows two quite different EPs – what can we expect from the album?
“Everything that’s ever inspired me and that I’ve put out – I think it will all make sense. The first song I put out on Spotify or on any streaming services was ‘I’m Going to Show you Crazy’ – it was like this pop/rock song and I was touring it on Warped Tour. It was all these rock, emo and screamo kids, and this was a pop/rock record based on mental health care, really raw and in-your-face. Later, I slowly went into dance records, and then did the G-Eazy song. So I’m taking all of my favourite things and combining it so that people understand how that all came from me.
Quite an eclectic album, then?
“It feels cool, it’s eclectic. I take ’90s guitar sounds that I love – I was inspired by No Doubt – and then I love hip hop music, but obviously I’m not a rapper. So I thought: ‘How can I combine that with urban and rhythmic?’ So I took rhythmic drum patterns and 808s and put them underneath a cool guitar, and just write super-real songs on them.”
You recently held a dinner for women in the music industry, right?
“It was called ‘Women in Harmony’. I don’t know, I just feel like nobody ever does anything for girls in LA, especially in the music business. It was basically just a dinner to celebrate women in music who can write songs and sing. So many people showed up, it was cool – like Avril Lavigne and Ester Dean and Charli XCX and all these massive songwriters. It was really cool.”
Did anything big go down?
“I did do a speech, but I don’t know what I said, I didn’t practice it. I was like: ‘We’re all bad bitches’. I was in the moment. It was cool – I was really nervous though, I wanted everyone to be happy. Have you ever hosted a dinner or something? I wanted to make sure everybody got food. At one point it got so packed because I didn’t expect so many people to show up. I had no more room at the table, I had to pull chairs out and give up my seat.”
You’ve written songs for big names like Rihanna and Nick Jonas. What’s it like giving songs to other people as opposed to releasing them yourself?
“A lot less stressful. You write the song, but it’s not going out under your name. When you put something out under your name, it takes a lot of time and work to really promote it. But if the song fits for either me or another artist, it’s fulfilling in both ways. It really is”.
With some great hooks and a tracklisting that means there is balance in terms of quality and sound, Expectations is an album that should have got more props and love back in 2018. There were those who provided praise and positivity towards Bebe Rexha’s debut. In their review, this is what NME observed:
“According to the second sentence of her Wikipedia page, Bebe Rexha is “best known for her collaborations with other artists”. This observation may sound like a Drag Race-style sass, but it’s hardly misleading: Rexha’s biggest hits have been team-ups with EDM star David Guetta (‘Hey Mama’), rapper G-Eazy (‘Me, Myself & I’) and country duo Florida Georgia Line (‘Meant To Be’). But while she’s also jumped on less glittering singles like Louis Tomlinson’s boring electro bop ‘Back To You’, Rexha is no ropey rent-a-vocalist. If this hard-working New Yorker adds vocals to a banger, chances are she’s written it too, and her distinctive songwriting style shines through this debut album.
To put it mildly, Rexha’s lyrics are a bit bleaker than those you get from Jess Glynne. “Nobody shows up unless I’m paying – have a drink on me, cheers to the failing,” she sings on ‘I’m A Mess’, which re-imagines the chorus from Meredith Brooks’ ‘Bitch’ as: “I’m a mess, I’m a loser, I’m a hater, I’m a user.” The just-a-tad melodramatic ‘Ferrari’ sees Rexha compare herself to a “Ferrari pulled off on Mulholland Drive” because “living in the fast lane’s getting kind of lonely”. On ‘Sad’, she simply shrugs, “Maybe I’m just comfortable being sad.” If this makes Rexha sound kind of emo, that’s because she is kind of emo: before going solo, she was a member of Pete Wentz’s short-lived side-project Black Cards.
Though Rexha works with a range of producers here, ‘Expectations’ is generally pretty cohesive, with many tracks built around tropical or trap-influenced beats and guitar lines inspired by No Doubt. Recruiting Migos’ Quavo to rap about private jets on ‘2 Souls On Fire’ feels incongruous, and her cute country hit ‘Meant To Be’ ends the album with a loved-up smile rather than its typically gutsy grimace. But these slight aberrations are outweighed by catchy but anguished pop songs like ‘Steady’, about a toxic relationship, and ‘Shining Star’, on which she rhymes “fucked up ways” with “drunken gaze”.
‘Expectations’ isn’t flawless, but it’s a compelling re-introduction to an underrated artist – one capable of putting her own stamp on current pop sounds. On this evidence, Rexha’s Wikipedia page will soon be due an update”.
I am going to round off with a good review from Rolling Stone. One of the best upcoming Pop artists of the time, I think that Expectations fulfills its promise and delivers results. Rexha does stand out as having an original and personal voice, in spite of some heavy reliance on Auto-Tune in places. I am glad that Expectations was a commercial success from a very underrated artist:
“BEBE REXHA’S VOICE makes a quirky, squirmy sound that may not be your cup of squeak. But if it is, then it’s crazily irresistible and, given the right melody, unstoppable. Her serpentine wail is the precious ingredient in some of today’s biggest hits, the factor that’s turned otherwise bland songs like Louis Tomlinson’s “Back to You” and Florida Georgia Line’s “Meant to Be” into body-rocking and chart-topping gold.
But after years hustling in the shadows of other people like Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, David Guetta, G-Eazy and more (she also wrote Eminem and Rihanna’s 2013 hit “Monster”), the 28-year-old singer’s first album has next to no guests. She is pop’s Giving Tree no more. And, judging by the lyrics, Rexha has been feeling rather raked over. “Maybe I’m just comfortable being sad,” she sings with a dark quaver on “Sad.” As the song and its title suggest, Expectations is full of sexy songs and a cornucopia of self-esteem issues.
“I’m A Mess” updates Meredith Brooks’ 1997 classic “Bitch”: “I’m a mess, I’m a loser/ I’m a hater, I’m a user/ I’m a mess for your love it ain’t you/ I’m obsessed, I’m embarrassed.” “Don’t Get Any Closer” also goes hard on the Nineties diva fandom, nailing the Gwen Stefani power squeal when she threatens to share “all the things I’ve been hiding” over the crackle of a record player she’s tooling with in her attic of secrets. On the other side of the spectrum, there’s the lusty romp “Self Control,” which is more like Hey Baby-era No Doubt, with its dancehall vibes and lyrics about giving into an obsession: “And I don’t mean cigarettes and alcohol,” Rexha sings.
On Expectations, Rexha paints herself as a heroine trapped in an ivory tower of her own making. But her cat-scratching upper register suggests sensitivity more than vengeance. She turns an Ed Sheeran-esque ballad like “Knees” into a firecracker of desperation, singing “I’m praying for closed doors and open windows … Don’t be scared to leave.” She does even better on “Ferrari” by enunciating the hell out of “Mulholland Drive” as she slams on the accelerator because “living in the fast lane’s getting kind of lone-lay.” As Brittney Spears, the ultimate Nineties queen, said on her own debut 20 years ago, Rexha’s lone-lay-ness is killing her”.
Released back on 22nd June, 2018, Bebe Rexha’s Expectations is an album you should all check out. Recently scoring chart success in Australia with David Guetta on I’m Good (Blue), here is an artist who I hope we hear a lot more from. A terrific talent who should be better known and played, go and check out 2018’s Expectations. Never as adored and praised as it should have been upon its release, I feel that it should get a whole new audience…
FOUR years later.