Today, Beabadoobee has released “Switchblade,” which is the second song to be lifted from her hugely anticipated forthcoming album, Pylon, that is a record with more wide-ranging and complex than anything that she has ever put out, which is a tannic rock record that is, at various points, angry, lonesome, ecstatic, depressed and deeply, pathologically in love. As for the music, Switchblade” takes its central metaphor and pulls it apart thoroughly, wondering whether “self-defense is to be brave/Do you start the fight/Or take the flight?” The song has no clear answers, with Laus emphatically past the point at which she thought she could ever have everything figured out.

Pylon, for all its turbulent emotions, celebrates the not-knowing; its brilliance suggests that sitting with uncertainty can create something immense, both emotionally and sonically. Its vast array of feelings, often contradictory ones, is the point, Laus said: “Pylon is about accepting that negative feelings are going to come back, accepting the insecurity and feeling confused. It’s all a necessary part of growing and knowing yourself better. You have to go through all that shit, I have to write about it.”