Worldwide Torture is the debut extended play (EP) by English singer Jazmin Bean,released on 22 October 2019 through Aswang Birthday Cake. Bean wrote and recorded the EP with producers Dave Draper,Dougal Drummond,Kristian Gilroy and Jessica Winter whilst working on their GCSE exams. Worldwide Torture features an experimental sound spanning multiple genres whilst drawing primarily from pop music and heavy metal,and lyrically explores themes of romance,emotions,trauma,abuse,and taking back control.
Worldwide Torture was supported by the singles "Worldwide Torture" and "Saccharine";the attention surrounding the latter and "Hello Kitty" led to Bean signing to Interscope and Island Records,after which they reissued the EP with six additional tracks in November 2020. By October 2023,it had garnered over 500 million streams. Bean felt increasingly limited by the "character" and style associated with Worldwide Torture and decided to abandon it on their eighteenth birthday,although they remain proud of the EP and what they accomplished through it.
Background and recording
Jazmin Bean began making music at the age of 15[1] after enrolling at a film school in London.[2] They[a] initially intended to make music to soundtrack their films,but ultimately decided to pursue music full-time as they found school too stifling for them.[2] They wrote songs after returning home from school,[4] and thought about their sound and visual ideas for their music videos when writing material.[2][4] Bean wrote and recorded Worldwide Torture with producers Dave Draper,Dougal Drummond,Kristian Gilroy and Jessica Winter[5] whilst working on their GCSE exams;[6] they wrote its title track during their maths exam.[4] Miscellaneous recording sessions were held at Octagon Studios in Brixton.[5] Bean recorded the EP for free after asking the producers for favours,promising that it would be successful and that they would be repaid later.[7] They worked on new songs for the EP to distract themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic.[8]
Composition
Overview
Worldwide Torture was me saying, "I'm here, I exist, and this is what you need to know about me as an artist." [...] I wanted to be as shocking as possible, to be an 'edge lord' and to get people's attention—which I did.
The lyrics of Worldwide Torture explore themes of romance, emotions,[8] trauma, abuse, and taking back control.[6] Chuck Campbell of the Knoxville News Sentinel described the lyrics as juxtaposing "fierce braggadocio" with "disturbingly deep insecurities",[14] whilst Sophie Walker of The Forty-Five wrote that they "keep [Bean's] heart under lock and key, protected by a fortress of don't-fuck-with-me threats".[2] Bean initially described themselves as representing a "character" on the EP that they hoped people could "relate and attach to that they can watch be hyper femme and crazy and theatrical and feel no shame for it."[16] They later said the EP's character was intended to help them cope with and protect themselves from negative situations they could not talk about at the time, and that it "was written from the perspective of what I wished that I could have done".[6][9]
Songs
Jael Goldfine of Paper considered the first verse of Worldwide Torture's opening title track to be "the mission statement for Jazmin's universe".[16] "Princess Castle", featuring Cottontail, blends alternative pop,[17]heavy metal, and electropop;[18] Robin Murray of Clash labelled it "trans-dimensional pop music".[17] Bean said song is about "disregarding someone, but it's about something kind of completely different."[19] "Saccharine" presents conflicting feelings over a crush and fears of vulnerability and intimacy over a "Jekyll and Hyde" instrumental switching between "grinding, distorted rock" and "dreamy pop", according to Goldfine.[16] Titled after the eponymous character,[20] "Hello Kitty" is a speed metal track[21] about Bean being "depressed and friendless" in school and using cartoons and toys as a way to cope;[20] they later claimed to have written it as a joke.[3][21] The last track of the EP's standard edition, "Little Lamb", is an "industrial goth musical"[14] displaying Bean's affinity for lambs and their symbolism.[13]
Reissued editions of Worldwide Torture add six additional tracks.[18][9] "Yandere" is a sequel to "Saccharine" that sees Bean accepting the feelings they had on the latter song and outlining their devotion and willingness to murder anyone who gets in the way of them over "fluttering" keyboards and heavy guitars.[8] The bass-heavy[1] "Monster Truck" features alternating segments displaying Bean's "sinister, baby-doll sweetness" and a "vicious, screamo freak-out" by guest vocalist Zheani.[22] Yusuf Baala of Dazed likened "War Zone Urchin" to "a nymph in an enchanted forest, to a Britney Spears fantasy commercial, to piercing screams that sounds like fairies getting their wings ripped off."[15] Bean wrote "B4 the Flight" during a time they were heartbroken, and struggled to complete the song for months as they kept crying every time they tried to record vocals.[2] Walker considered Bean's cover of "I'm a Slave 4 U" by Britney Spears to be an "antidote" to the original song;[2] Campbell likewise called the cover a "deconstructed mess" that shows Bean "[turning] cultural icons inside-out".[14]
Release and promotion
Bean released Worldwide Torture's title track as its lead single on 1 August 2019,[23] alongside a music video that Bean self-financed and directed for £500.[13] On 22 October 2019, Bean self-released the EP through their own record label, Aswang Birthday Cake,[1][24] and released a music video for "Saccharine",[16] which they filmed on a £2,000 budget[25] with the help of their mother[4] and friend Salvia.[16] Around the time of Worldwide Torture's release, Bean had garnered attention for their extreme makeup style.[26] Bean said that whilst they were aware of their makeup following and that it would be heard as a result, they had no expectations and did not expect the EP to "become a thing".[27] The "Saccharine" video received over 60 million views by 2023.[9]
In December 2019, Bean released a music video for "Hello Kitty",[20] which became their biggest hit to date.[21] The attention surrounding "Saccharine" and "Hello Kitty" helped Bean garner close to one million followers on TikTok[28] and led to them signing with Interscope and Island Records.[1] On 11 November 2020, Bean reissued Worldwide Torture with six additional tracks,[8] which they promoted with music videos for "Yandere" and "Princess Castle".[8][17] In a November 2020 interview with The Forty-Five, Bean expressed interest in making music videos for all of the EP's songs but said it would only come to fruitition if they were "stubborn enough".[2] In 2023, Bean covered "Saccharine", "Yandere" and "Little Lamb" on their Acoustic Church Session EP.[9]
Emily Swingle of Gay Times praised Worldwide Torture for being consistently "positively carnivorous and unflinchingly bold".[6] Günseli Yalcinkaya of Dazed remarked that it "sounds like nightmarish fever dream—in the best way possible."[29] Campbell of the Knoxville News Sentinel believed that, in spite of the "unapologetically histrionic" EP's "derivative roots", music fans "should be impressed by Jazmin Bean's commitment to the cause" and that it would "sound radical" to "those less experienced in music history".[14] In 2021, The Forty-Five listed "Monster Truck" as the 41st best hyperpop song of all time.[22]
By October 2023, Worldwide Torture had received over 500 million streams.[30]Kerrang!'s George Garner said that the EP helped "[mark] the arrival of a major new audio-visual artist".[26] According to Swingle, Bean "proved how far alternative innovation could be stretched" with Worldwide Torture and "[inspired] a wave of grunge-tinged artists to arise in their wake".[6] Over time, Bean felt increasingly limited by the "character" and style associated with Worldwide Torture and decided to abandon it on their eighteenth birthday,[3][26] which generated some backlash from their fanbase.[3] Though they have no intention of returning to its style,[31] Bean said they remained proud of the EP and what they accomplished through it.[6][26]
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