Nothing Short Of Beautiful: bdrmm – The Bedroom Tapes EP review

It’s the ultimate soundtrack to your teenage years: a journey of mistake-making and heartbreaking self-growth sounds... expect stripped back. It’s bdrmm’s ‘The Bedroom Tapes’ EP, their condensed spin-off album which gives us slowed acoustic versions of the best tracks from their debut album ‘Bedroom’, and it’s nothing short of beautiful. 

Given a five-star review and titled ‘a modern shoegaze classic’ by the NME, bdrmm’s debut album reached an incredible number two in the independent album charts days after the release on the 3^rd of July this year. 

They followed this success with a performance for Radio X’s isolation sessions soon after, as well holding a listening party with The Charlatans’s Tim Burgess in his ongoing Twitter trend. Bdrmm recently revealed via their Instagram that the aptly named  'RecordStore.co.uk' listed ‘Bedroom’ as the second-best album released in 2020, and independent record store group Rough Trade placed the album at number eight in their ‘albums of the year’ lineup. But the five-piece did not stop at that. 

This more recent release offers a laidback, dazed alternative to the euphoric soundscape of the full-length album. It consists of four live tracks, including a version of the band’s most streamed song ‘Gush’, which the band consider ‘a special track’ to them, alongside raw versions of ‘Question Mark’, ‘Reason to Celebrate’ and ‘Forget the Credits’. Bdrmm stated they self-produced and recorded all four of the songs within lockdown, proving the band are not only skilled beyond just the writing and performing of their own music, but it also provokes an appreciation for the compilation in a new light. 

The euphonious, dulcet tones flowing through each aspect of all four songs, from the hushed vocals to the lulling of an acoustic guitar, and everything in between, show just how much bdrmm have poured their heart into this spin-off piece, but there is just a level more to ‘The Bedroom Tapes’ as opposed to the debut: a self-produced live album that fully expresses the beauty and dynamic of their potential. 

It’s worth listening to each version of all four tracks alongside their originals to entirely appreciate each song in its own right. Both the original debut and ‘The Bedroom Tapes’ prove that bdrmm are a band to keep an eye out for as they don’t look to be settling anytime soon. It will be exciting to see if they have even more to offer. It seems promising for the Hull five-piece. 

Next stop, a number one album. 

- Eve Cherrill

@evieeczx