Bebe Rexha’s ‘Dirty Blonde’ Plays to the Formula She Claims to Reject

Bebe Rexha’s fourth album arrives in the shadow of a breakup she made public. After 12 years with Warner, where she’d spoken out about being “silenced and punished” and given no promotional budget for her final single there, Dirty Blonde is her first independent release. The narrative she offered around the record suggested liberation — a tearful Instagram post at the start of this year captured the moment she learned she’d been dropped, and lead single “New Religion” went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart soon after. But the music tells a different story.

Rather than push beyond the boundaries she’s criticised, Rexha doubles down on the dance-pop mould that has always sold her best. The album is a set of EDM and club-ready tracks, heavy on production that too often recycles the mid-2010s sound. Her gift for raw, confessional songwriting — the one thing that truly separated her from peers — gets sidelined. There are moments: “I Like You Better Than Me” cuts through with genuine vulnerability, and the hook of “New Religion” feels like a genuine declaration. But elsewhere, the project becomes a search for the next chart hit, not the personal statement her exit promised.

Before going independent, Rexha experimented with country alongside Dolly Parton, hinting at a wider range. Dirty Blonde abandons that curiosity. The result lacks cohesion, and a singer who once called herself “crazy” on a debut single now sounds cautious. The album plays it so safe that it reinforces the very industry logic she’s been fighting — as if commercial safety is the only language she still trusts.