With many dominant women on the Modern Rock scene today, perhaps one of the most compelling is France’s Jehnny Beth. Taking piano lessons at a very young age, Beth has always had a very personal relationship with the arts. Blessed with a multifaceted artistic palette, she approaches the canvas as a poet, writer, musician, and actress. With various avenues to explore, you could say Beth always creates with intense, genuine human emotion.
Beginning her professional acting career in her twenties, she has starred in a multitude of films, including 2009’s Horror-themed Sodium Babies and, more recently, the 2025 Netflix Thriller mini-series Hostage. On the other side of the coin, her music career is most associated with the success of the Rock band Savages, where she led the band on two studio albums: 2013’s Silence Yourself and 2015’s chart-topper Adore Life. Since then, she has been exploring other projects, including releasing her acclaimed debut solo album, To Love Is to Live, in 2020, before collaborating with Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie on Utopian Ashes in 2021. Also publishing the bold and erotic book C.A.L.M: 12 erotic short stories in partnership with Johnny Hostile in 2020, it seems like Beth is peaking in the realm of artistic fulfillment.
With all of this in mind, now in 2025, she returns with her anticipated second solo album, You Heartbreaker, You. Released on August 29, 2025, through Fiction Records, the album (produced by Johnny Hostile) finds Beth exploring new ground with a more aggressive sound than ever before. Letting her Punk Rock influences shine through, the album is full of heavier guitars and more Industrial Rock textures, matched with her raw voice, which ranges from whispers to screams. Evident in the lead single “Broken Rib” (which arrived in mid-May 2015), the song is dark, edgy, and one that piques curiosity about what will come next.
This carried over into subsequent singles like the eerie “Obsession,” Industrial “No Good For People,” and the full-throttle heaviness of “High Resolution Sadness,” but also the moody “Stop Me Now.” All excellent explanations of what You Heartbreaker, You offers, can feel the cathartic release of Beth through the music’s hostility and her vicious attack on the vocals. Honest in her lyrics, the themes vary throughout, but one thing is for sure: like many of us, Beth is feeling the frustration of a modern world full of chaos.
Expressing these emotions in varied voices, while the more aggressive songs on the album absolutely stand out, you also cannot overlook the darkly compelling moments heard on others like “I Still Believe” and “I See Your Pain.” Altogether, it hits like a ton of bricks, mesmerizing you into Beth’s world full of questions and unleashed inner rage. An album that will appeal to anyone who loves the harshness of Industrial Rock with the melodic institution of Alternative Rock (like Filter or Stabbing Westward), Jehnny Beth solidifies herself as an artist well worth following. That is why Cryptic Rock gives You Heartbreaker, You 5 out of 5 stars.
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