Traumatic Livelihood

Jazmin Bean

February 23, 2024

Review by: Grace Forrester

Photo: Jaw Midnight

After their official announcement in October of 2023, Jazmin Bean has finally released their long-awaited debut album Traumatic Livelihood. Tackling intense themes of traumatic relationships along with sexual and drug abuse, Bean gives us an unbridled glimpse into their life, past and present. Inspired by film scores and a drive to constantly challenge the conventions of pop music, the album covers a range of genres. Songs like “Piggie” give a pop-punk edge while heartfelt ballads such as the ending track “The Blood Brings Colour and Fluoresce” feels haunting, yet beautiful.

The album starts off with it’s title track, a song full of determination for oneself. The track repeats variations of the lyric “I’ll do anything I want” despite all odds, which sets the tone going forward through the track list. Flowing into some of the leading singles, “Piggie”, “Favourite Toy”, and “Terrified” showcase Bean’s artistry, each song bringing something different, sonically and lyrically, to the table while still being cohesive to the narrative of the album as a whole. Bean’s personal favorites, “Fish” and “Shit Show”, reflect this. In an interview with PAPER, Bean says that “I think they [Fish and Shit Show] are so different from anything I’ve done before and are really an evolution sonically and very detailed in their production.”

As the album reaches its end, Bean tackles the challenging topics of drug use and trauma in tracks such as “Best Junkie You Adore, “Bitch With a Gun” and “The Blood Brings Colour and Fluoresce”. Mixing orchestra strings with Bean’s ever-evolving sound, they round out the album as Bean balances moving on and healing, but still dealing with the weight of their past. The lyric “Look at the garden, oh don’t you like it? I grew all of these carnations myself, and underneath are the bodies I have wept and I won’t hide it.” encapsulates this felling wholeheartedly. Leading up the the release, Bean explains the meaning of the final track in an Instagram post, “I have some ugly things in my life. I have a beautiful garden and everyone can see that, but there are definitely some bodies underneath that I’m not really afraid to admit.” Beans bears themselves in such a an open, brutal, and beautiful way, cementing themselves as a force to be reckon with within the pop scene.

You can stream Traumatic Livelihood on all major streaming services and watch the music videos for Terrified and You Know What You’ve Done on their YouTube.