Bakar has been one of the more quietly influential figures in British indie for several years now. Born Abubakar Baker Shariff-Farr in London, he broke through in 2019 with "Hell N Back" and spent the years since proving that the song was not a fluke. His BEASTIE EP, released in September 2025, collected some of his most assured material, and "Backseat" is part of that run. The EP catches Bakar in a moment where the experimentation that always sat under his indie rock surface is becoming the main event rather than the accent. His 2023 album Halo pushed further than anything he had done before, and BEASTIE continues in that direction without losing the melodic clarity that drew people to him originally. "Backseat" hits the balance between propulsion and restraint that Bakar does better than most of his peers. It is not a complicated song, but it is a very well-constructed one, and in the context of the EP, it functions as a deliberate breather before the record gets stranger.
Bakar