The British singer/songwriter turns Carpenter’s pop-rock hit into a sweeter acoustic jam and mashes it up with a 23-year-old hit
It’s official: Sabrina Carpenter covers are the new Chappell Roan covers. Not long after Saturday Night Live (with help from Ariana Grande) turned “Espresso” into the ultra-viral “Bridesmaid Speech,” a.k.a. “Domingo,” British singer/songwriter Beabadoobee has jumped in the ring with a reimagined version of Carpenter’s “Taste.”
In the rendition, recorded live at BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge, Beabadoobee recasts Carpenter’s acerbic pop-rock hit into something gentler, with a slightly countrified, acoustic-guitar-and-strings arrangement — almost how the Corrs would’ve done it. To underscore the point, she seamlessly mashes in a chunk of that band’s 2000 hit “Breathless” into the performance before circling back to “Taste.”
“Taste” hit No. 2 on the U.S. Hot 100, but it’s even more popular in the U.K., spending 20 weeks at the top of the charts. It’s currently at No. 8 in the U.S, accompanied by two other Carpenter songs still lingering in the top ten: “Espresso” at No. 3 and “Please Please Please” at No. 10.
Beabadoobee, meanwhile, released her third full-length album, This Is How Tomorrow Moves, in August. On that Rick Rubin-produced album, per Rolling Stone’s review, she “steps outside of the whimsical world she built on 2022’s Beatopia and faces the messy reality of becoming an adult…Bea has crystallized her sonic landscape, thanks to her command of guitar and her angelic delivery.”
Earlier this year, Carpenter told Rolling Stone she wants the tales of romantic mishaps on songs like “Taste” to make listeners feel better about their own lives. “I hope they find whatever they need to guide them through their life through my mistakes,” she said, “because I think the more open I am with my experiences, the more that other people are like, ‘Oh, maybe that’s OK that that happened to me. It’s not the end of the world.’”
