The time is nigh, Girls5eva fans — Friday, Peacock officially released a soundtrack for Season 2 of the critically acclaimed musical comedy series, featuring iconic tracks like “Your Eyes,” “Bend Not Break,” and of course “B.P.E.” In addition, the soundtrack includes a new dance remix of “B.P.E.”, which Consequence is happy to feature here.
Girls5eva, created by Meredith Scardino and executive produced by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, stars Sara Bareilles, Busy Philipps, Paula Pell, and Renée Elise Goldsberry as the surviving members of a 2000-era girl group who reunite as much older adult women to try to reclaim some of their past glory. Season 2 witnessed the group going into “album mode,” writing their own music for the first time — and, as seen with “B.P.E.”, using it as a medium to express their inner feminist rage.
As Consequence‘s Paolo Ragusa wrote about Season 2 in his review, “Girls5eva is a one-of-a-kind show about friendship, but it’s also about the struggles of middle-aged women working within the historically problematic music industry.” As a song, “B.P.E.” encapsulates that concept flawlessly: “During Season 1, I had the idea for ‘B.P.E.! Got that big pussy energy,’ and that one line was always in my head. It organically came back in Season 2 when Girls5eva were making their own music,” Scardino said in the show’s press notes.
Composer Jeff Richmond also noted that he drew upon some contemporary influences to capture a specific energy. “It’s like the way Lizzo has a song that almost feels too slow, but then it has a gob of energy to it when it gets to the fast rap part, or like Cardi B who can rap really fast to these things. So we were trying to find a song that could be anthemic, fast enough that you could get the energy out of that, and then also have these really soaring, singing melodic lines in it. But we still wanted to have these really fast rap sections which would give another musical element to the whole thing. We then let all those things come together. It was tricky, but it was so satisfying when we got to the end.”
The dance remix of “B.P.E.” was produced by Eric Kupper and executive produced by Brad Mason LeBeau. Listen to the dance remix below as part of Peacock’s 5YC campaign, and you can find details on where to listen to the full soundtrack here.
UPDATE: Also check out a sample of the new video released to celebrate the “B.P.E.” remix, below.
