A breathtakingly intimate, delicate, and vulnerable experimental pop record, Becky and the Birds’ debut album ‘Only music makes me cry now’ is a cathartic and all-consuming triumph of unfiltered self-expression, creative freedom, and emotional release.
for fans of Charli XCX, Alex Banin, Mk.gee, Orion Sun, Nilüfer Yanya
“When she holds me” – Becky and the Birds
Becky and the Birds has always been rooted in free expression.
When she first started the project, Thea Gustafsson relished the opportunity to record music under a pseudonym without any pressure or expectations.
“Becky and the Birds stemmed from me starting to produce and finding my creative freedom in that, without my real name attached to it,” the Swedish musician tells Atwood Magazine. “I only did it for my own sake and for the freedom of creativity. From there, when I had developed the music and the concept, I realized that I had found something that needed a name.”
“I chose Becky and the Birds because the first song I ever produced had a sample in it where a woman named Becky is talking about her friend who is a bird. I thought it was so weird and I loved it; it kind of fit the whole vibe of what I had been creating. It’s taken on a life of its own too, where people refer to my vocal choir moments as my ‘birds.’”
Dreams again about her
Sundazed infused skin
Pearls in her bed
And on her chest I am resting my head
And nothing else would be good enough
But to stay here forever inside her arms
When she holds me
When she holds me
And everything else disappear at once
But the sent if her body and summertime
When she holds me
When she holds me
– “When she holds,” Becky and the Birds
The past five years have seen Becky and the Birds emerge as a vessel of limitless sonic potential, with Gustafsson not so much dipping her toes, as immersing her full self in everything from electropop to alternative R&B and neo-soul – all while unpacking her rawest emotions and most visceral experiences through song.
Her debut album is the apotheosis of her journey so far, capturing the true essence of her artistry, her identity, and her humanity: A breathtakingly intimate, delicate, and vulnerable experimental pop record, Only music makes me cry now is a cathartic and all-consuming triumph of unfiltered self-expression, creative freedom, and emotional release.
Released November 15th, 2024 via 4AD, Only music makes me cry now is an ambient, ethereal, emotionally charged fever dream: A dreamy, glitchy, lush landscape charting Gustafsson’s personal voyage through heartache and healing.
“I started the process of making the record after going through a breakup,” Gustafsson tells Atwood Magazine. “I began by sitting at the piano and recorded myself letting whatever feeling come through to me, fully come through. I was in a state of subconscious and let my feelings and thoughts speak to me. I later used those recordings as samples of myself, and those samples helped build the production. The album very much revolves around that time of finding myself again after a breakup, while also exploring different production techniques and letting my creativity lead the way.”
“When I started, I didn’t have any expectations, and I let it be whatever it wanted to be. Then, as I was spending a lot of time in London, I became more and more inspired by the club scene there, which helped shape the electronic aspect of the album. I think [this album] introduces me more than ever before as a creative and as a producer. This is the proudest I have ever been of my work.”
Gustafsson candidly describes Only Music Makes Me Cry Now as subconscious, sincere, and creative. “I find the title to be so true to how I felt when I finished the record and when I closed that chapter of my breakup story,” she says of the album’s name. “I was no longer crying over heartbreak, only music.”
Highlights abound on the journey from album opener “Star” to title track “Only music makes me cry now” as Becky and the Birds invites listeners to bask in her seductive and singular world: One where inner turmoil comes to life through churning, soul-stirring beats, and where heartache and longing manifest through passionate, beautifully fragile vocal performances. Standouts range from the delicately explosive “Everything” and the soulfully soothing “To trust you,” to the gospel-fused lament “I made my baby cry,” the dreamy “London is not the same,” and the all-consuming, achingly emotional “When she holds me.”
“I love the outros on a lot of the songs because I think it’s cool that I took a lot of risks in mixing hard with soft and acoustic,” Gustafsson says of her own favorite moments. “I like that I never stayed with the obvious.”
Meanwhile, her favorite lyrics is pulled from the finale: “Every time I gave my love away / I just gave too much / Had to watch it fade away / Every time I had a hand to hold / I held on too tight / Didn’t want to let it go / All the violence I did to my heart / Just to keep a love / And not make it fall apart / All the times I was with someone / All the times that I was crying.”
“By the end of my writing process, which really served as a therapy for me, my skin had grown thick and there were no more tears left for me to cry,” she explains. “I wanted a new start and I was ready for it. At that point, only music made me cry.”
Only music makes me cry now is soft and gentle, dramatic and raging: A gut-wrenching, head-turning home to musical dualities that hits hard and leaves a lasting mark on the ears, the heart, and the soul.
If anything is true of Becky and the Birds’ debut album, it is that it is an unfiltered, uncompromising, and unapologetic expression of creative freedom.
“It’s a cool reminder that you can trust your creative intuition and that there will be people who like it,” Gustafsson smiles. “It’s a reminder to stay true to your vision, even if that means making a song that has the same sentence repeated over and over again!”
Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside Becky and the Birds’ Only Music Makes Me Cry Now with Atwood Magazine as Thea Gustafsson takes us track-by-track through the music and lyrics of her debut album!
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:: stream/purchase Only Music Makes Me Cry Now here ::
:: connect with Becky and the Birds here ::
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Stream: ‘Only Music Makes Me Cry Now’ – Becky and the Birds
:: Inside Only Music Makes Me Cry Now ::
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Star
I wrote this song during a time when I was somebody’s “sometimes,” while all I wanted to be was to be their’s “all of the time.” I wanted to be their star.
Anymore
This song is for anyone who finally realizes they deserve more. You have no more tears left to cry and you can finally see the person in your relationship for who they truly are. You’re finally setting yourself free, and are aware of your worth.
To trust you
To trust you is for everyone who’s dealing with trust issues within their relationship. How do you let go of resentment when someone has done something in the past that has made you question their trust? And to further that, how do you trust yourself and not start going insane? The production on the track resembles the vicious cycle of darkness and madness you can get stuck in when something like this happens.
I look at the choices I made
This song, to me, is about being in a relationship that’s secluded from the rest of the world. No one knows or particularly likes the person that you’re with and understands them in the way that you do. But this ultimately means that you’re alone in it, and after a while, you’re left alone with the choices you made. The choice of choosing a person instead of your freedom.
I made my baby cry
A post break-up song. Causing an internal death in a person you once loved is the absolute worst feeling in the world.
When she holds me
This is an ode to all women and a recognition of their ethereal beauty. I originally wrote this about first girl I fell in love with, who, to me, was a reminder of summer.
London is not the same
After spending a lot of time with a specific person in London, I felt completely lost and alone in a way that I hadn’t felt in that city before. Suddenly, nothing was quite the same, and the place that I had just made my home didn’t feel like a home anymore.
Everything
What do you say after you’ve given a person everything you’ve got? There’s not a lot more left for you to do. And that in itself can be the most frustrating, infuriating feeling there can be. To want so much only to get so little back. I think that the production portrays these hopeless and desperate feelings perfectly.
Elsa 4-ever
I wrote this song for Elsa, my partner. After seeing Lilja 4-ever I always knew that I wanted to use the “4-ever” since that movie has been an everlasting inspiration for me, even though I’ve only watched it once or twice since it’s quite hard to watch. But it has lived on in my head forever.
Won’t do that
This song portrays the feelings of wanting to call an ex. Because after all, that person still knows you better than anyone, and in times of confusion, you just want to call the person who knows you inside and out.
Celebrity // Don’t leave
This song is about not wanting to lose somebody to the arms of others. You’ve been with them in the beginning, the hard times, and to lose them on the way up would be a shame for everything you’ve put in.
Only music makes me cry now
By the end of my writing process, which really served as a therapy for me, my skin had grown thick and there were no more tears left for me to cry. I wanted a new start and I was ready for it. At that point, only music made me cry.
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:: stream/purchase Only Music Makes Me Cry Now here ::
:: connect with Becky and the Birds here ::
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© Oscar Lindqvist
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