Spotlight: Shanghai Baby is Game, Set, Match in New Single “I Could Never Beat You”
2024 IS THE YEAR OF SHANGHAI BABY — Ade Martín returns with the first taste of her new music with the angular and stoic “I Could Never Beat You," a lucid dance between acceptance and defeat.
“I didn’t know what the lyrics were going to be about before going to the studio. I vomited it all. Whenever I listen to it now, it brings me back to those feelings which is something I don’t particularly like, but it reminds me to be careful of romanticizing the past,” Martín says about the song.
She admits defeat from the first line (“I could never beat you”) to the chorus (“Just take it all / Just take it all from me”), all while driving the song with a surfy wall of sound. In the single’s music video, Martin plays her guitar alone as a spinshot hurls tennis balls at her. She keeps playing, keeps singing, hit after hit.
“I Could Never Beat You” is Shanghai Baby’s first single since the electric “Is This The Right Time,” released early last year. She released her gritty indie debut, EP01, in 2022.
Martín’s released music under Shanghai Baby since 2021, fueled by inspirations like The Strokes, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Spoon. In December 2022, she departed indie rock band Hinds as their bassist along with then-drummer Amber Grimbergen. Shanghai Baby is Martín’s opportunity to “focus solely on the types of sentiments and sounds that have a more personal meaning,” and we can’t wait to hear what she has in store for us this year.
