Olie Beckett turns infatuation into a fever dream on “New Obsession”

Olie Beckett captures that electric spiral in a bottle and sets it off over three heady minutes on "New Obsession." There’s a type of thrill that is almost too big for your body, the kind you lie awake with at night, every word exchanged replaying in your head, every glance or what-if sound becoming louder than the one before. 

“New Obsession” immediately ropes listeners in with its delicious mess of falling fast. It’s the dizzy space where a harmless crush begins to teeter into something more profound, or maybe just unsound. Beckett doesn’t shy away from the drama of it. Instead, he leans into it, that rush of wanting someone so much you’re almost obsessed with them.

The lyrics sweep in with an icy, self-possessed energy heightened by snide, self-aware humor. There’s a wink in the writing, an acknowledgment that, yes, this could be a lot. But just as you get comfortable with that joshing reserve, the chorus opens up to a yawp. Suddenly, the guard drops. What starts as a little harmless interest explodes into full disclosure, showing how profoundly the obsession goes.

Olie Beckett depicts love in “New Obsession” not as a gradual flourishing, but as a plunge, headfirst. It’s ravishing and destabilizing, epitomizing the exquisite imbalance of surrendering to your feelings before you’ve had the chance to doubt them.