“We’re not the cherry on the top – we’re the whole damn cake!” Belfast dream-pop duo Beauty Sleep are in a defiant mood as they express their commitment to Radical Happiness on their second album, The Whole Damn Cake.
Release Date: 17th October 2025
Label: Alcopop! Records
Formats: CD /Vinyl / Digital
WE’RE NOT THE CHERRY ON THE TOP…
“We’re not the cherry on the top – we’re the whole damn cake!” That’s the proud, defiant, statement that Belfast dream-pop duo, Beauty Sleep are making with this, their second full length album. If you haven’t come across them before (unlikely, if you call Northern Ireland home, as we shall see…) Beauty Sleep are Cheylene Murphy and Ryan Mc Groarty – partners in music and partners in life.
The duo have drawn comparisons to the likes of New Order, St Vincent and Japanese Breakfast. There might be something in those comparisons but, personally, I’m not yet convinced; I’m tending towards the view that the furrow being ploughed by Cheylene and Ryan is pretty much of their own making…
RADICAL HAPPINESS
Beauty Sleep have been making some impressive waves on their home patch. Their 2019 debut album, Be Kind, was a nominated contender for the Best Album gong at that year’s Northern Irish Music Awards and the pair have since consolidated that success with a run of singles that include BIG + BAD and Big Sky – both included here on the new album, The Whole Damn Cake.
The theme for the Whole Damn Cake is built around Beauty Sleep’s commitment to a state of mind that they’ve dubbed Radical Happiness. As Cheylene explains: “Someone told me I was ‘dangerously positive’ and that stuck with me. I liked the idea that my positivity could be dangerous… that it could enact change. We wanted to honour that concept of ‘Radical Happiness’ at every step. The goal was to enjoy it. And we did. It was alo super-challenging. But we’re so proud of it.”
A REVERIE, A MOMENT OF BREATH
The Whole Damn Cake is (almost) all Beauty Sleep’s whole damn work. They’re helped out by Ross Bickerstaff, who plays drums but, otherwise, the playing, the vocals, the production and the mixing is theirs, and theirs alone. “It’s amazing,” say Cheylene and Ryan, “We just vibe. We tag in and out. If one of us has an idea, we just jump in. If one of us peters out, the other takes over.”
Beauty Sleep kick off The Whole Damn Cake as they mean to go on, with Up For Air, a slow-building, synth-driven number. Described as “…a reverie, a moment of breath before diving into transformation,” it’s a song that shimmers into ethereality, before reaching skywards for the “Oh – I’ll wait in vain” climax.
NOT AN OUNCE OF COMPLACENCY
“It made us think of ourselves, the version of us touring our songs, creating music together in the studio. Happy,” say Cheylene and Ryan as they explain the sentiments behind You (You’re All I Wanted). It’s a song that could be construed both as a message to the duo’s younger selves and as a manifesto for their future. There’s joy here, there’s optimism, there’s contentment and there’s accommodation of each other’s needs. But not an ounce of complacency…
The music might sound light and fluffy, but We Don’t Talk About It is one of the album’s key tracks. The song is Cheylene’s reappraisal of the tribulations that she suffered during her school days in relation to her sexuality. “We can only describe being young, queer, a woman, and going to a Catholic school as traumatic, when it comes to sex,” she says. “Being so sexually liberated in our 30s is not what we thought would happen and it’s hella empowering in all aspects of our lives.” Guitars have equal prominence to the synths on this one and Cheylene’s sincere lyrics come right from the heart.
DANCE, SHOUT AND DREAM. LET IT ALL GO
One of the two singles to preview The Whole Damn Cake, BIG + BAD is fast and pulsing, unexpectedly tender and intimate and is topped off with a glorious guitar solo, before we move on – to get to grips with the album’s central theme with Radical Happiness. Lyrics like: “Choose to dance and shout – and then dream, and then let it all go,” capture the ‘Radical Happiness’ concept perfectly, as does the music, which is light, blissful and relentless.
The fast-moving Unfamiliar is an excellent song with intriguing lyrics that pay full attention to the fine details, and the same can be said of No Fever Ever Lasts, a song in which the duo raise a middle finger to the cynics amongst us. And I love the guitar-drenched rocky ending!
THE EMOTIONAL HEART OF THE RECORD
Cheylene describes Send It Out To Sea as “The emotional heart of the record,” and it’s easy to see where she’s coming from. The song was written during a trip up the Irish coast to Connemara and Cheylene freely admits that Send It Out to Sea, along with Keep Your Eyes Up are the songs on the album that are: “…most likely to make me cry.” Strummed guitar chords set the atmospheric scene and Cheylene’s dreamy vocals complete the dreamy picture, before punchy synths kick in to drive the song to its thrilling close.
And Keep You Eyes Up – that other Cheylene tear-jerker – also came into being during that monumental coastal trip. The eeuphoria continues and the emotions cascade earthwards in words like: “Keep your eyes up – and believe,” a cure-all for challenges that might make your ‘knuckles bleed’ and incite you to ‘growl.’
LIBERATION FROM LINGERING DEPRESSION
Described as “…a shimmering ode to neurodivergence,” Stars is everything you’d imagine it to be. The song’s lyrics are inspired by Cheylene’s late diagnosis with ADHD and the deep connections that she shares with ‘similarly wired people.’ The music twinkles – just like the stars of the song’s title – and Cheylene’s voice is warm and comforting as she sheds grief and inhibition and allows herself to be: “…pulled into orbit – because we’re stars!”
Am I Real? was written “during a spiral of pandemic-induced derealization” and lyrics like: “Whirling scenes collide around me; how can I tell which one is real” echo feelings that many will have experienced during the confinement of lockdown. And Cheylene offers liberation from any lingering depression as the song moves into a joyful DANCE phase!
SOLUTIONS THAT WORK
Second single, Big Sky, came about on a beach after Beauty Sleep had enjoyed an uplifting night at Primavera Festival and the song is every bit as uplifting as that experience. It’s another heady mix of synths and guitars, with a euphoric vocal from Cheylene as she opens her arms, and her heart, to that big sky and the to the rising sun.
Speaking of closing track, Take a Look Back, Ryan says: “It’s an invitation to start again.” The song is another sprightly burst of self-analysis; Ryan plays the role of tortured soul, whilst Cheylene offers all the solutions. And the breezy guitar solo and the pulsing rhythm leave the listener in no doubt: these are solutions that work.
Watch the official video to Radical Happiness, the song that explores the central theme of the album, below:
Beauty Sleep online: Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / YouTube / Bandcamp
Keep up with At The Barrier: Facebook / X (formerly Twitter) / Instagram / Spotify / YouTube