Swedish experimental pop musician and producer Thea Gustafsson (aka Becky and the Birds) shared her self-produced debut album, Only music makes me cry now, in November 2024.
After recently being named Producer of the Year at the 2025 Swedish Grammis, she now returns a new track entitled ‘Should’ve known better (choices)’ — a thematic companion to the Only music makes me cry now track ‘I look at the choices i made’, the new single highlights Gustafsson’s unique, current, and boundless production style via a daring yet synergetic combination of 90s alt-R&B flow, gritty Timbaland beats, and bright accordion passages, provided by her father. The track additionally arrives alongside an accompanying cinematic music video directed by the Swedish creative team ph-any (Patricia Aliaga Devall & Hedvig Moberg).
Becky and the Birds – ‘Should’ve known better (choices)’
Official Video by ph-any
About Becky and the Birds
Thea Gustafsson, aka Becky and the Birds, is a disciplined person by nature, with her formal musical education at Musikmakarna Songwriters Academy of Sweden, later tutelage under Avicii, and avid violin-playing as a child inspiring her unending need for perfectionism. Armed with the skills of pop songcraft and production, Becky and the Birds came to life in 2016 in reaction to frustrating and fruitless encounters with male producers and songwriters, which took form in 2018’s self-released EP Becky and the Birds. With the release of her debut 4AD EP, Trasslig, in 2020, Gustafsson used Becky and the Birds as an outlet for songs about complex women – strong, independent, sensitive and romantic women that are both powerful and vulnerable at the same time and who are ‘trasslig’ (Swedish for ‘entangled, messy, intricate’).
Following this, Gustafsson was nominated in the Breakthrough of the Year category at the Swedish Music Publishers Association Awards, the equivalent of the GRAMMYs for songwriters and composers in Sweden. She has also collaborated with the likes of Dijon, Seinabo Sey, and Lapsley, among others, and in 2021, Gustafsson then released the single ‘With You’ as an exclusive for Spotify’s Studio Oyster.
The long-awaited debut Becky and the Birds album Only Music Makes Me Cry Now arrived in the fall of 2024. Intricately layered, sonically diverse, and emotionally hard-hitting, the record combines lush walls of sound, manipulations of Gustafsson’s bird-like vocals, and natural city sounds recorded in Stockholm and London. From the ethereal and intimate indie-pop track ‘When she holds me’ to the sleek and hypnotic sound bath ‘Anymore’, the surprising combination of electric guitar and stomping 808s on ‘To trust you‘, and the gorgeous post-breakup lament ‘I made my baby cry’ (which was revered by Elton John on his Apple Music 1 radio show, Rocket Hour), listeners are treated to her strongest Becky and the Birds material to date, which will translate to an alluring and unique live set that can’t be missed.
Only Music Makes Me Cry Now is available digitally and on Standard Black vinyl exclusively via the 4AD webstore. Find more information HERE.
Praise for Becky and the Birds
“A contemplative and tranquil look at all the complexities that come when you allow yourself to be vulnerable to your own emotions” – Pitchfork
“Lo-fi but sumptuous; experimental but somehow pop, without obeying any of pop’s usual rules.” – The Guardian
“Something very, very special – best record I’ve heard in a long, long time.” – Elton John on Rocket Hour
“Resplendent” – Gorilla vs Bear
“A hazy mix of pitched-up vocals, rangey bass, and angelic, compressed woodwind” – The Fader
“You’d do well to find a better debut” – The Line of Best Fit
“Beautifully hypnotic… undeniably breathtaking.” – Variance Magazine
“Stunning, soulful debut submerges us in an atmosphere of layered synths and bird-like vocals that are careful, yet hit with chilling intensity” – Vinyl Me Please
Becky and the Birds – Only Music Makes Me Cry Now
4AD0741
Tracklisting:
1. Star
2. Anymore
3. To trust you
4. I look at the choices I made
7. London is not the same
8. Everything
9. Elsa 4-ever
10. Won’t do that
11. Celebrity // don’t leave
12. Only music makes me cry now
BECKY AND THE BIRDS ONLINE
