Beth Seymour & The Lizzies: Outside, You’d Love Me To Death
(Self Released)
All Formats Available
Available 28th November
Australian Beth Seymour returns with Outside, You’d Love Me To Death, her second album in less than 3 months, following You Wouldn’t Like It Inside My Head
2025 has been a year to remember for Melbourne’s Beth Seymour. Described as ‘Australia’s queen of power pop and punk’. Early 2025 saw the artist’s return to music since coming out as transgender last year. Having already released her debut album, the full length You Wouldn’t Like It Inside My Head reviewed here in August, she follows it up with the release of Outside, You’d Love Me To Death.
Both albums were recorded at the same time, telling the story of Beth’s journey of self-discovery; her death and rebirth into the person she was always meant to be. Whilst the former depicted her darkest days/self-described “breakdown”, the new album tells the story of her recovery and finding her place in the world as an openly transgender woman.
At the end of the previous album we left Seymour admitting/accepting they had ‘problems’ and seeking help, ready to tear the lid off their gender issues. Outside, You’d Love Me To Death begins with Jiminy Crickets, which sees the artist beginning to open up and finding anxiety melting away.
The album contains a handful of tracks released as ’stand-alone’ single whilst also fitting into the narrative. The first of these is Sam Raimi, which was actually released before the first of the pair of albums and is possibly my favourite of all released this year. I always thought that there was My Chemical Romance feel to and it was a song which would complement any movie dealing with friendships and relationships. For Seymour however it’s much more than this, as she explains, ‘My wife has been there for me through every aspect of everything that’s happened in my life. During some of my darkest moments, she was happy to sit with me and do nothing but work our way through the entire Sam Raimi filmography. We’d put MTV Classic on mute and talk about our deepest darkest feelings as the colours flashed in front of us. This song is for her and it’s just one small gesture in paying her back for everything she’s done for me. I owe her the whole world.’
Don’t Look Down, is a slow-burn rocker tackling Beth’s complicated feelings about leaving behind aspects of her old life in order to find herself. It seems fitting that the track after this is Characters In A Film, a theatrical sounding number with a hint of swing. Although there is a fun element musically it does have a hint of darkness at its core, highlighting that real life is much more complicated than fiction, and every action has more ripple effects than you can possibly ever plan for. Seymour considering that maybe life would be a lot simpler if we had some time between chapters but, unfortunately, we have to persist through season after season of more drama than we deserve…
I Only Want To Break Your Heart stands at the centre point of the record addressing how some people have reacted to Seymour coming out as transgender and while they may say one thing, they actually mean another, with the artist steadfast in their decision and realisation that, ’It’s not callous to put yourself first when the things people are asking of you are unreasonable’.
Outside, You’d Love Me To Death Outside is a positive record and definitely one of ‘coming out the other side’ in all ways. (Fearing) The World At Large and Regrets both address this, from how Seymour presents herself and how she’s become satisfied with this despite what others my think and also finding peace in the fact that some people will fall by the wayside but ultimately being proud of who they are now.
The penultimate Creatures Of The Deep gallops along and is antithesis of the previous tracks, a love song and a story of gratitude dedicated to all those who stood by and stood up for Seymour through all the challenges she’s faced. This leads into the closing Horse Girl, the shortest track on the record at under a minute. It is the moment when, if this was a film, the central character would be throwing off the shackles and stepping into the light before the credits roll.
Played back to back, from Hellboy at the start of You Wouldn’t Like It Inside My Head to Horse Girl at the close of Outside, You’d Love Me To Death, Seymour takes you on her journey, from feeling isolated and alone to finally being free. Two solid albums each in their own right but fully satisfying as a whole.
Find Beth Semour via her LinkTree
All words by Iain Key. See his author profile here or find him via his LinkTree
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