Jehnny Beth - You Heartbreaker, You (Album Review)
Wednesday, 03 September 2025
Written by Tom Morgan
It’s often fun to interpret music as having a colour palette. It’ll be different for everyone, but we’ll all have our ideas of how music ‘looks’ — some sounds are warm hues, others cold, some are vivid, others stark.
Jehnny Beth, though, has rarely made music that could be described as colourful. Her work, as a solo act and with her previous band Savages, usually reflects the images used as artworks and in photo shoots: black and white and intense.
On her latest solo effort ‘You Heartbreaker, You’, her knife-like face stares straight out at the viewer. These tracks are similarly confrontational — all punk-rock distortion intertwined elegantly with pulses of grinding electronica.
In terms of reference points, imagine an industrial-rock Patti Smith. At its very best, there are even echoes of the audacious genre-smashing of Kim Gordon’s 2024 stunner ‘The Collective’. The general vibe is unpredictable, coursing with barely sublimated violence, along with more than a hint of eroticism.
Obsession is a synthetic-meets-organic stunner, its simmering restraint sporadically broken up by moments of electronic-rock violence. Reality is also great fun, full of wild left turns that fuse scratchy guitar chords and distorted electronics with metallic aplomb.
A few of the more familiar moments don’t quite work, such as Out Of My Reach, home to a climax that errs a bit too close to ‘90s alt-rock, but broadly this is a well-realised effort that exudes unflinching, seductive and jet-black personality.
Jehnny Beth Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Thu October 30 2025 - LONDON Electrowerkz
Fri October 31 2025 - LONDON Camden Assembly
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
