The Tufts Beelzebubs debuted their 33rd studio album on Oct. 11. With a run time of 39 minutes and featuring 11 songs, “Delirium” is a project two years in the making.
The Beelzebubs, also known as the Bubs, are a nationally acclaimed a cappella group founded in 1963. In addition to live performances on and off campus, the Bubs produce an album roughly every two years. The production process begins with the group deciding what songs to track and creating an arrangement of the original song. Each song is arranged by a different member or members of the group, with some senior performers arranging more songs than other members. The Bubs work with Somerville-based music production studio Plaid Productions to record, edit and perfect their albums.
“Everyone will record their parts individually with Plaid Productions the way we sang it live,” Bubs Music Director True Becker said. “And then they’ll have it stored in a computer software that they can make edits and mix with.”
The first track is “Rio,” originally performed by Duran Duran and previously covered by the Bubs in their 1991 album “Foster Street.” From the start, the Bubs create a celebratory and regal tone by adapting the original version’s electric guitar riffs to vocal riffs. Soloist Roan Yeh’s hauntingly beautiful rendition of Simon Le Bon’s vocals kicks the album into overdrive and allows the ‘delirium’ to begin. Overall, the arrangement of this song makes you pay more attention to the intro, verse and pre-chorus as opposed to exclusively highlighting the iconic and well known chorus.
The second song, “Since You Been Gone,” is surprisingly not a misspelled version of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone,” but rather a cover of Rainbow’s 1979 rock song “Since You Been Gone.” This fun track keeps the upbeat energy introduced by “Rio,” but is followed by a more subdued introduction in “Would That I.” The Bubs replace Hozier’s relaxed guitar plucking with their signature non-lexical vocables isolated in the beginning but still present in the background as the song moves on and rises to a crescendo.
The Bubs covered 2024 Spring Fling headliner Jordin Sparks’ “Battlefield” on the fifth song of the album. The group of baritone, tenor and bass singers used layering and an intricate arrangement to create a new version of Sparks’ mezzo-soprano song. Released only a year before “Battlefield,” the next song is “Check Yes Juliet” by We the Kings. Their funky, upbeat arrangement of the original emo pop-punk song loses the early-2000s grunge aesthetic, but that’s not a bad thing.
On the seventh track of the album, the Bubs cover Maximillian’s “Ripples.” The group’s vocals create literal ripples in the sound, adding to the dreamy effect of one of the best songs on this album. With just 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify, Maximillian is not quite ‘mainstream,’ making it all the more impressive that the Bubs found an artist whose lyrics and composition suited their strengths so perfectly.
Michael Bublé’s “Comin’ Home Baby” (with Boyz II Men) features intricate percussion and heavily relies on the instrumental track; nevertheless, True Becker, lead percussionist for the Bubs’ cover, seamlessly adapted the acid jazz to fit the Bubs’ signature groovy a cappella sound. The star of this song is the immensely challenging and utterly stunning run of “every night and day I miss you” sung by senior and Beelzebubs President Varun Sasisekharan, which took the original to a new level.
“Grow As We Go” covers a song from the debut album of Ben Platt — an a cappella icon known for his roles in “Pitch Perfect” (2012) and “Dear Evan Hansen” (2021). The melancholy tone of the original song thankfully becomes more subdued than depressing in the Bubs’ version.
The final song of the album, “Wings,” breaks the four-song streak of somber sounds to end “Delirium” on a high note.
“Every single person has a moment where you can hear their voice isolated [in “Wings”], except for True, because he’s doing the [percussion],” Sasisekharan said. “I think it was really fitting to close with the song just as a testament to last year’s group and … give everyone a chance to shine at the end of the album.”
Looking ahead, the Bubs hope to build off their legacy as the Warblers on Fox’s hit show “Glee” while still making the group their own and enjoying what they do.
“The perspective for us now is, ‘How do we have fun for ourselves, rather than how do we shatter world records?,’” said junior and Bubs Business Manager Anish Guggilam. “Although both are great, I think focusing on the prior makes attaining those goals a lot easier.”
“Delirium” is an exciting collection that highlights the group’s range and unique style while still preserving the classic sound of the Tufts Beelzebubs. The album is available to stream wherever you get your music.
