Bea Elmy Martin has shared Under The Yew (Vol. 2), a six-track release that expands the world she first opened on Under The Yew (Vol. 1). Where that earlier record moved through loss, healing and renewal, this follow-up pushes further into connection, identity and the difficult business of learning how to hold yourself together while life is still shifting underneath you.
That emotional precision has always been central to Bea Elmy Martin’s writing. London born and bred, and raised on classic soul artists including Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway, she has long treated songwriting as a way of making overwhelming feelings manageable. That instinct still seems to sit right at the centre of this project, which feels less like a neat statement than a snapshot of growth still happening in real time.
A six-track release full of movement, feeling and self-interrogation
A key moment on the record arrives through ‘High’, which carries a lightness on the surface while holding something far less settled underneath. Bea frames it as a tongue-in-cheek look at how messy relationships can become when you are still trying to work yourself out, and that push between openness and restraint gives the track its shape. It sounds like a song about wanting connection while also knowing that real freedom probably starts with learning how to enjoy your own company first.
That tension seems to run through the wider release too. Bea Elmy Martin moves across friendship, disconnection, healing and self-definition without trying to force any of it into a single emotional line. ‘Anouk’ is described as a portrait of a close friendship altered by time and distance, while tracks such as ‘Lost’, ‘Born To Fly’ and ‘Unscarred’ trace different points along the line between rupture and repair. ‘Written On Me’ turns towards intimacy instead, focusing on the quieter ways love leaves its mark.
What makes Under The Yew (Vol. 2) especially appealing is that it seems to trust nuance. These songs are connected, but not locked into one mood. Bea lets them stay fluid, which suits a record so focused on identity and emotional change. Rather than presenting growth as some clean breakthrough, the project sounds more interested in the half-finished state of things, where self-knowledge, longing and uncertainty all keep brushing up against one another.
The wider sound world helps that along. Bea’s music is framed through ethereal vocals, orchestral intimacy and brooding electronics, with comparisons that stretch from Air and Portishead to Billie Marten and Adrianne Lenker. That is a broad but useful picture, because it suggests an artist comfortable with both atmosphere and closeness, someone able to make a record feel emotionally rich without losing detail or control.
Bea’s next phase has been building gradually, from early BBC support for her 2021 debut single ‘Blue Escape’ to the fuller world she opens here. Support from Clash, Notion, Wonderland, EARMILK and Mystic Sons, alongside continued BBC backing, has only sharpened the sense that Under The Yew (Vol. 2) lands as a genuine step forward rather than a holding pattern.
That makes this release feel like more than a simple follow-up. Under The Yew (Vol. 2) sounds like Bea Elmy Martin leaning harder into what already suits her best: emotional clarity, atmosphere and songs that do not pretend growth is ever simple. In that sense, ‘High’ feels like the right song to lead with, because it catches the whole project in miniature: restless, open-hearted and still figuring out how to stand steady.
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