By Matilda Stokes

Beth McCarthy is bursting into 2024 with their rock/pop single ‘IDK How to Talk to Girls’. It’s a bubbly, brash track at just under 3 minutes, with McCarthy’s tongue-in-cheek lyrics and bubblegum hair reminiscent of Paramore in the mid-2000s. 

In no way new to the music industry, McCarthy has had a steady flow of releases dating back to 2016 with a combined total of 30 million streams on Spotify. 

The Paramore parallels stack with the chorus’s explosive, gravelly guitar against McCarthy’s punk/pop vocals. Yet, McCarthy makes it their own, singing in their British accent for lines like the song’s title ‘idk how to talk to girls’, which packs a punch and drives the song forward. The verses ring more delicate with - plucky guitar backdropping and plushier singing providing an even balance and respite for the full-force choruses to come. 

The visuals have Beth McCarthy slap bang in the middle of a girl’s bathroom, cutely and dorkily lip-synching - encapsulating the song's exhilaration and anxiety. 

All in all, a track with enough ups and downs to keep you tuned in, there’s not much more you could ask from a pop song - best enjoyed when you’re drinking wine in the kitchen with your friends!