Rising star Frankie Beetlestone releases his new EP ‘Ignorance Is Bliss’(Listen Here). Featuring five tracks, including recent releases ‘Something To Say’, ‘My House’ and new single ‘Everything Is Changing’, it crackles with the energy and excitement of an artist about to make his big breakthrough.
Over two previous EPs, the exuberant indie-pop of 2021’s ‘Tasting The Sky’ and the fizzy grooves of 2023’s ‘Caravan’, Frankie has honed his way with an infectious melody around lyrical observations that pinball from poignant to playful. The ‘Ignorance Is Bliss’ EP is the beginning of an exhilarating new phase for the charismatic 23 year old.
There is a frenetic buzz to the ‘Ignorance Is Bliss’ EP that reflects being young in the city and sometimes reminding yourself to have more than two hours sleep every night – not always possible between holding down a job during the day and putting down your defining artistic statement during the night. “The EP was born out of the graft,” he declares. “It’s what a lot of it is about, being tested but getting through it and having a laugh and having a good time and not getting too down about things. Life, that’s what it’s about.”
Soaring rocker ‘Everything Is Changing’, a song that has already connected with Frankie’s diehard fans after becoming a live favourite, is a determined manifesto where Beetlestone sets out his stall. “I think you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it,” the Sheffield native states. “Even though I wrote Everything Is Changing two years ago, I wrote it thinking ‘Yes, I am going to be the biggest artist in the world, I am going to sell out arenas.’ And even now when I’ve moved to London and changed up my entire perspective on making music, I still have that drive. I always want to do better than the person I was yesterday.”
Lyrically, it’s an EP that captures Beetlestone trying to make sense of the whirlwind going on around him. The propulsive grooves, wiry riffs and yearning vocals of ‘Something To Say’ sees the singer trying to replicate the elation of falling in love for the first time in song, the urgent, danceable indie-rock of ‘Adults’ surveys the scenes of his life with all its addictions, attachments and anxieties whilst the racing 2 Tone-tinged pop of ‘My House’ sees Beetlestone take a kaleidoscopic trip through this own mind.
The shuffling hooks and widescreen guitars of ‘Trouble’ document the intricate dynamics of a relationship whilst the title track says everything about where Frankie Beetlestone is as an artist right now and where he’s heading next. “That song felt like it encapsulates the whole project,” he says. “It’s what the whole process has been about, not really caring anymore about what anyone is going to think.” Ignorance Is Bliss alright, but the secret is out for Frankie Beetlestone. These songs are his statement of intent. Life, that’s what it’s about.
Frankie Beetlestone will be playing a string of headline dates in the UK in September in support of the Ignorance Is Bliss EP. Frankie previously opened for Only The Poets and Tom Grennan and played the BBC Music Introducing Stage at Reading & Leeds.
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