Fourth albums usually show where an artist intends to plant their flag. For Beatrice Laus, who records as Beabadoobee, the concluding track on her fourth full-length record Pylon settles the matter with a surprising contrast. Titled Satellite, the song brings together Laus and Deftones frontman Chino Moreno, fusing her songwriting with a heavy, guitar-driven surge that anchors the tail end of the album.
Released alongside an official lyric video, Satellite starts with considerable restraint before it blows open. Laus opens the track quietly, framing her lines around distance, old memories, and lingering hesitation. Her lyrics sketch out stolen telephone calls, the dull suspension of waiting on a dial tone, and the unease of feeling hung upside down while worrying about letting someone down. She wonders aloud whether past thoughts still remain, singing directly to a distant figure in an effort to pull an old bond back into focus. When the chorus arrives, the song pivots abruptly into loud, distorted guitar chords. Laus shifts her imagery toward the night sky, describing what it feels like to stand split in two beneath the stars, caught orbiting someone else like a satellite. Moreno enters here not to steer the track away from Laus, but to tuck his voice into the background. His contribution is measured and layered into the wall of distortion, adding a familiar weight to the arrangement without crowding the vocal lead.
Pylon arrived on September 18, following the rollout of three advance singles, Memories, Switchblade, and Sun Has Set. While Satellite is the only track featuring Moreno, it belongs to an album defined by a wide list of outside contributors. Paramore singer Hayley Williams contributes to the record, as do Turnstile vocalist Brendan Yates and Pinegrove singer Evan Stephens Hall. Laus also brought back The 1975 members Matty Healy and George Daniel, both frequent creative partners of hers, while Title Fight guitarist Shane Moran worked behind the scenes to co-write a major portion of the songs on the tracklist.
The release of Pylon follows several other projects Laus completed earlier in the year. She teamed up with Los Angeles band The Marías for the one-off single All I Did Was Dream Of You, a track accompanied by a music video referencing Yorgos Lanthimos and his film Bugonia. In another shift of style, Laus contributed an acoustic rendition of Elliott Smith's Say Yes to the charity compilation Help(2), organised for War Child.
Her schedule on the road matches the increased scale of the new album. Laus is currently stepping into headline arenas across several continents. Next month, she tours North America with dates across the United States and Canada, before heading overseas in November for a run across mainland Europe and the United Kingdom. Her British tour itinerary includes concerts in Cardiff, Glasgow, and Manchester, finishing with a headline show at the O2 arena in London.
For Moreno, singing on Satellite comes right after an extensive run of European arenas and festivals with Deftones. During the summer, the band headlined the Outbreak x All Points East event in London, which marked the biggest headline show of their career in the United Kingdom. His appearance on Pylon places his recognizable vocal style directly beside Laus' melodic framing, ending the album on an arrangement that balances guitar distortion against quiet, reflective pop writing.
