beabadoobee – “I Wish I Was Stephen Malkmus”

Jordan Curtis Hughes

beabadoobee – “I Wish I Was Stephen Malkmus”

Jordan Curtis Hughes

Remember when a young Taylor Swift broke through with a song called “Tim McGraw”? Here is the indie rock version of that.

Well, not exactly. London bedroom-pop act beabadoobee, aka Bea Kristi, already counts the 1975 and Wolf Alice as label-mates on Dirty Hit, will open for Clairo on tour this fall, and has been granted a smattering of press coverage, so she’s not exactly an unknown quantity. Then again, young Swift had the Big Machine behind her when she made her big debut, too. Whether the comparison holds or not, naming your song after the lead singer of Pavement is one easy way to get indie rock fans to pay attention.

Which brings us to “I Wish I Was Stephen Malkmus,” the new beabadoobee single out today. It’s from her upcoming Space Cadet EP, and it features the lyric, “Sitting at home, crying to Pavement/ I wish I was Stephen Malkmus.” It seems Kristi really does stan Pavement; she told The Fader she projected one of the band’s 1992 concerts on stage at one of her shows rather than booking an opening act. The influence of the band is certainly evident on this song, but other, poppier ’90s alt-rock hits are in the mix too.

I like it! Listen below.

Space Cadet is out in October on Dirty Hit.

more from New Music