Turning Back the Clock: Bebe Stockwell’s ‘Driving Backwards’ EP Explores Love’s Timeless Echoes
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Driving Backwards is Bebe Stockwell's debut EP, marking her first major release and introducing her unique voice to the world. This emotionally charged and introspective collection delves deep into the complexities of love, loss, and the passage of time. Through each track, Stockwell navigates the intricate emotions of relationships, whether it's the quiet ache of a toxic love in “Ruined” or the delicate yearning found in “Blue Moon.” With raw, vulnerable lyrics and intimate melodies, Stockwell crafts a haunting soundscape that invites listeners to reflect on their own emotional journeys. Featuring collaborations with Hans Williams and Chance Emerson, Driving Backwards is a powerful and poignant debut that sets the stage for an exciting musical career, offering a timeless exploration of memory, longing, and the bittersweet process of letting go.
The opening track on Driving Backwards, “Minor Inconveniences,” sets the tone for the EP with its bittersweet reflection on life’s daily struggles. Through a series of small, relatable frustrations; burnt toast, lost keys, nagging aches, the song explores how seemingly minor events can slowly wear someone down. Yet despite it all, the recurring line “And I say, ‘I’m fine’” captures the quiet resilience in how we often hide our deeper struggles behind a smile. It’s a song about the quiet endurance of the everyday, but one that doesn’t shy away from honesty. The bridge offers a subtle but hopeful shift, reminding us “It just takes time to breathe again.” In embracing the ups and downs, the song reminds us that life is made of these small moments, and that we’ll be okay, even if we’re not right now.
From these personal frustrations, the EP shifts into deeper emotional territory with “Ruined,” a powerful exploration of the emotional residue left behind by a toxic relationship. Where “Minor Inconveniences” masked pain with politeness, “Ruined” is raw and unfiltered. The refrain “You ruined that” repeats like a mantra, turning cherished places and everyday moments into haunting reminders of someone who left lasting scars. The loss isn’t just emotional it’s geographical, as even London becomes a place too painful to love. Lines like “I was shrinking in to make you feel better” reveal the erosion of identity, while “Memories, deleted that / Night time, I filled the glass” paint a vivid picture of coping and survival. There’s a brutal honesty here, but also a quiet attempt to reclaim selfhood in the aftermath of emotional wreckage.
Following that emotional devastation, “Want Me” acts as the emotional centerpiece of the EP, a raw, aching plea for validation at the end of a relationship that’s slowly falling apart. If “Ruined” was about what love destroyed, “Want Me” is about what’s still desperately trying to be saved. The repeated chorus line “Show me that you love me / Before I go” becomes both a heartbreak and a final ultimatum. The speaker is suspended between staying and leaving, haunted by moments of false hope , “That night in Boston / You said you'd change.” There’s a painful disconnect between words and actions, and through lines like “But you never hold me,” we feel the loneliness of being in a relationship with someone emotionally absent. Quiet, confessional, and painfully intimate, “Want Me” captures the helplessness of loving someone who may no longer be capable of loving you back.
With “Speak Too Soon” (ft. Hans Williams), the EP pivots toward something more tentative and tender: the fragile beginnings of new love. After the heartbreak of “Want Me,” this duet offers a glimpse of emotional renewal, though not without hesitation. The opening line “Oh there I go / Loving someone new” captures the thrill and risk of vulnerability, especially for someone still carrying the weight of past hurt. Describing oneself as “a masochist, with a sweet disposition” reveals the complex emotional baggage at play, hopeful yet guarded. The blending of Stockwell and Williams’ voices mirrors the emotional balancing act of two people trying to love carefully, yet fully. “To make you feel ok / While we both hesitate” highlights the shared uncertainty, giving the song an authenticity that’s both tender and true. It’s not just a duet, it’s a conversation between two hearts learning to trust again.
That sense of reflection deepens in “Driving Backwards” (ft. Chance Emerson), the EP’s title track and emotional anchor. Dreamlike and wistful, the song feels like watching a life unfold in reverse, or imagining what could have been. The repetition of milestones, “We closed in May / The debt repaid / Engagement day / The children raised” acts like snapshots in a photo album, conjuring a full, shared life that may or may not have ever truly happened. What gives the song its emotional weight is not grandeur, but its focus on domestic intimacy: “You laugh and you start complaining / It’s spilling everywhere.” These small, imperfect moments ground the dream in something real. Whether memory or fantasy, “Driving Backwards” captures the aching beauty of a love remembered, or imagined with quiet grace.
From that imagined future, the EP shifts to the raw aftermath of loss in “Call Me by Your Name,” the most emotionally intense song on the project. Drawing inspiration from the novel and film of the same name, the song plunges into the intimate remnants of a love that still haunts the speaker. From “the sounds in your sleep” to “Do you love her?”, the lyrics are soaked in longing, uncertainty, and identity blur. The question “Is it better to speak or to die?” a direct nod to the source material, underlines the cost of emotional silence and unspoken love. The atmospheric vocals and confessional tone add depth to the heartbreak, while “Call me by your name, I’ll call you by mine” becomes a final, aching invocation of shared identity. It’s about what lingers after love fades, a desire so deep, it becomes part of who you are.
In the penultimate track, “Blue Moon,” Stockwell turns inward, reflecting on how some past loves never fully leave us. The song doesn’t plead for a return, but rather honors the subtle ways memory resurfaces, “Once in a blue moon / I think about you.” With lines like “seeing someone new” and “got a routine,” the speaker paints the picture of someone who’s mostly moved on, but not entirely. The admission “If I do I might fall right back in” acknowledges how vulnerable the heart can still be, no matter how much time has passed. Instead of dramatizing heartbreak, “Blue Moon” offers a graceful meditation on emotional residue, a love that lingers not in pain, but in quiet moments of nostalgia. It’s a tender reminder that healing isn’t linear, and some feelings, while no longer defining, are never truly gone.
Finally, the EP closes with “Live Forever,” a soft, heart-wrenching tribute to the kind of love that stays with you, even after it ends. In contrast to the emotional limbo of earlier tracks, this song is a gentle, dignified goodbye, a decision to remember without bitterness. The desire to “live forever” isn’t about eternal life, but about never forgetting the little things that made the love real: “the way you say good morning,” “the smell of your hair.” It’s a song about choosing to preserve love as a memory, even when the other person has moved on “I’m going to live forever / Even if you forget me.” With its graceful restraint and emotional clarity, “Live Forever” brings the EP to a close not with heartbreak, but with remembrance, offering a final, powerful testament to the strength it takes to hold on, not to someone, but to what they once meant.
Driving Backwards marks Bebe Stockwell’s debut in the music scene, introducing a fresh and emotionally resonant voice. Each track offers a window into her ability to capture the complexities of love, loss, and personal growth. From the relatable frustrations of “Minor Inconveniences” to the aching vulnerability of “Call Me by Your Name,” Stockwell’s storytelling and raw emotion shine through, creating a deeply engaging experience for listeners. This EP is a stunning introduction to an artist with the rare ability to turn personal moments into universal expressions of feeling, leaving a lasting impression and making her one to watch in the future.
