Review: Carla Geneve’s Better Believe It

Carla Geneve
Better Believe It
Remote Control Records

Albany-born, Perth-based artist Carla Geneve’s new album, Don’t Be Afraid, is set to be released on Friday, October 17. To kick off her new era, she has released Better Believe It, a commanding single that lays the emotional groundwork for the upcoming album.

Better Believe It was the first song recorded for the album, and it serves as the blueprint for its sound. The song is stripped back but intense, with simple chords allowing Geneve’s voice to take full control.

The track is emotionally charged and raw, featuring Geneve’s signature soft, breathy vocals that demand to be heard—both a pleasure to feel and to hear. It has that sound that makes you sway, with just the right amount of feeling to have you singing it at the top of your lungs.

The seven-time WAM Music Award winner revealed on her YouTube that the single was recorded many different times—and in many different versions.

“I just have this anxiety about making things too slow,” Geneve shared, referring to the slow, built-up pace of her new single. But that worry is misplaced—if anything, the song’s melodic tempo only strengthens its passion and intensity.

If Better Believe It is the foundation, then Don’t Be Afraid promises to be a deeply personal, carefully crafted body of work.

LILLIAN WILSON