Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
In the last few years, Betty Beata’s contemporary pop scene – and the generation that has been taking it over one track at a time – has turned out some soul-stirring material ranging from the simple to the complex and surreal, but with her lovely slice of holiday-style R&B in the form of “My Favourite Time Of The Year,” this is a singer/songwriter who asserts herself as a cut above the competition.
This new single brings a little bit of vocal tenacity into Beata’s sound and throws in a dash of dexterous but wholly balladic beats just to keep things interesting for those who might be expecting something overly simplistic. “My Favourite Time Of The Year” arrives at a rather unpredictable period in pop music history, and one could make the argument that its uncaged vitality and confident strut are exactly the kind of experimental edges that a singer of this talent level can manage like few before her time could.
Beata doesn’t hold anything back from us in this song, and from where I sit, her lyrical effort in this track could qualify as her most brooding and intimately delivered so far. The faint percussive track that shadows the bassline’s slow but deliberate movements mirrors the pulsating rhythm of a beating heart in the refrain, but the build-up to the chorus yields about as much tension as I would expect to encounter on the first leg of a gentle sleigh ride. Every element audible to us is contributing to the narrative of the song as a whole, and though the lyrics are always at the center of our attention, they’re certainly not the only sparkling jewel to behold in “My Favourite Time Of The Year.”
The master mix is tailored around Beata’s singing, but it’s also constructed to create a vacuum-like pull in the bass that greases the wheels for the vocal to sink its biggest hook into us in the chorus. It reminds me a lot of the slow jam R&B of the old school with a decidedly more thoughtful jazz groove underscoring the drum track, though anyone familiar with indie music will instantly be able to hone in on the original qualities present in the song that keep it from feeling like a throwback to mid-2000’s R&B.
If this is just a sampling of what Betty Beata has in the tank at the moment then I cannot wait to hear what she comes up with in 2023. “My Favourite Time Of The Year” is a holiday juggernaut with the panache of a great R&B ballad and the facets of an orchestral pop work of art, and it does encapsulate the artist responsible for singing it to us here. She’s come a long way in a short amount of time, all things considered, and I don’t think that there’s room for debate when it comes to determining if her music is ready for primetime. Beata has got a lot of power in this performance, and I like what she’s chosen to do with it.
Erica Ainge
