Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Bebe Rexha, Warner Bros. Records 2018.
Expectations is the debut album for Bebe Rexha and it has fulfilled the hopes of the fans, and record company, that are hinted at in the album’s title.
Bebe Rexha burst onto the scene in 2013 when Eminem and Rihanna had a worldwide hit with Bebe’s song The Monster.
Since then she has cemented her reputation for penning catchy tunes with snazzy pop hooks through the release of a string of chart topping singles, both under her own name and with artists as diverse as David Guetta and G-Easy.
Bebe released two EPs in 2017 in the lead up to this album, All Your Fault; Part 1 and All Your Fault; Part 2 to rave reviews and she has dominated the Australian charts over the last year.
The first single from this album, Meant To Be (featuring Georgia Line) reached #1 on the iTunes chart and #2 on the ARIA chart. It’s also the most played track on Australian radio so far this year.
Meant To Be held the #1 spot on the official airplay chart for 6 consecutive weeks as well as the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot Country Chart for 18 consecutive weeks. These are impressive figures.
As a singer/songwriter, Bebe Rexha has accumulated over 11 million single sales and 3.3 billion global streams plus 304 millionYouTube/Vevo views, so you can understand the pressure on her to produce a chart-topping debut album.
And the album is good. It contains 14 tracks all of which could be singles.
In addition to Georgia Line she is joined by Quavo on 2 Souls on Fire and Tory Lanez on Steady.
The songs are well constructed and the sound quality by the production team of Max Martin, Ali Payami, JUSSI, Jason Evigan, Louis Bell, The Stereotypes, and Hit-Boy is crisp and imaginative.
This album is a very impressive debut.
