Stephanie Bettman’s “Beautiful Day”

A melody as lively as it comes is one thing, but when offered beside a soft sway that feels a lot like a cool spring breeze, the spirit of an entire season can be captured in a song. If there’s a pop single that fits that description this April, it’s unquestionably Stephanie Bettman’s “Beautiful Day,” one of the signature songs out of her scene at the moment.

WEBSITE: https://www.stephaniebettman.com/

From the very start of the track, the music inspires thoughts of a relaxing afternoon and basking in the jubilance of a new year and all that it brings. Lyrics are lightly peppered over the gorgeous harmonies between the instruments, and if you’re not careful, it’s easy to get hypnotized by their shapeliness alone. “Beautiful Day” is a modern take on a familiar and admittedly tried indie pop sound, and this month it’s making it onto a lot of critics’ ‘Best of lists on the strength of a player who has long awaited getting the respect she deserves from her scene.

On the surface, seemingly every part of this track acts as a contributing element of evocation. The patterned clapping conjures up a sense of homespun grandeur amidst the pastoral grooving of the guitars, whose strings frame Bettman’s singing better than anything else possibly could have. The rhythm of the arrangement as a whole is itself an attitude underwriting the angular narrative in the lyrics. Bettman herself gives up some silky verses that need no further elaboration than they receive here.

She’s to the point with us, doesn’t waste any of our time on tired metaphors that we hear every two minutes on Spotify’s AI-generated pop playlists, and she doesn’t appear to have any issues sharing our attention with the strings behind her. I think the drums are the only instrument that doesn’t get as much of a boost from the mix as the other components do, but they don’t need one because they’re already powerful enough as they are. Frankly, their fragility doesn’t kill the fluidity of the collective tempo in the least. “Beautiful Day” was well-designed and built to last, avoiding ties to generational fads while touching on folk-rock conceptualism at the same time.

DOWNLOAD LINK: https://hypeddit.com/hbz2nd?mc_cid=d2f90a499d&mc_eid=8448af09d2

Bettman came into this with nothing to prove to the folk-pop establishment, and if her depth as a collaborator wasn’t enough to score a universal round of applause, then I think that the substance of this single should suffice. She’s already done some amazing work ahead of this, and with her solo sound coming into its own, we’re seeing even more from her profile than was previously recognized.

Pop requires a lot out of the players in 2024, but Stephanie Bettman demonstrates the sort of keen attention to detail that it takes to become one of the style’s reputed leaders. We’ve never known a time quite like the present in indie pop and folk music, and this is a player who is determined to put her mark on the era with an exclamation point that can be felt around the world.

Mindy McCall