Better Mistakes

Bebe worked on the album and finished it before the COVID pandemic, with most of the recording taking place in the summer and fall of 2019. Rexha announced the parent album's title as Better Mistakes, along with its artwork and release date (May 7, 2021), on April 14, 2021,[2][3] along with the announcement of the third single, "Sabotage".[4] On April 15, she revealed the tracklist on her social media accounts. The album was available for pre-order on April 16, conceding with the release of "Sabotage".

The whole album is based on actual insecurity. My mental health, self-love, me sabotaging everything in my life, am I good enough for this relationship? [...] It was really just taking the real-life stuff that I'm going through, which is really important for me to write about. There's still guitar, but there's a lot of hip-hop in it, but it's still pop. And there are some really pop records. It's not really dance music, but you can bop to it. But when you listen to it, it's really a body of work. And we worked really hard sonically to make sure that everything leads into one another, and it sounds like body of work instead of just having a playlist.

— Rexha describing the inspiration for Better Mistakes, People[5]

On October 5, 2020, Bebe Rexha announced the lead single called "Baby, I'm Jealous", featuring Doja Cat, would be released on October 9.[6][7][8] The song charted at number 58 on the US Billboard Hot 100. She released the follow-up single, "Sacrifice", on March 4, 2021.[9] On April 14, Rexha announced the third single, "Sabotage", would be released on April 16, along with the album's pre-order. On April 28, Rexha announced the song "Die for a Man" featuring American rapper-singer-songwriter Lil Uzi Vert would be released as the promotional single off the album on April 30.[10] She later gave a snippet of the song a day before the single's release.[11]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[12]
Clash	7/10[13]
Entertainment Weekly	B[14]
The Forty-Five	[15]
Spectrum Culture	65%[16]
The Young Folks	8/10[17]

Robin Murray from Clash called the album a "bulldozer 30 minute pop experience" that "affords Bebe Rexha space to amplify her potency while exposing her insecurities", further summarizing it as "13 songs that punch out their truths and then dissipate".[13]

Better Mistakes debuted at number 140 on the US Billboard 200 becoming Rexha's lowest charting album on the chart.[18] In Canada, the album debuted at number 57 on the Billboard Canadian Albums.[19]

Notes

• "Amore" contains an interpolation of the 1953 song "That's Amore", written by Harry Warren and Jack Brooks.
• "Mama" contains an interpolation of the 1975 song "Bohemian Rhapsody", by the band Queen.

Musicians

• Bebe Rexha – lead vocals
• Travis Barker – drums (1)
• Peter Rycroft – bass, drums, guitar, synthesizer programming (4)
• David Strääf – drum programming (4), guitar (4, 11), backing vocals, drums, synthesizer (10, 11); acoustic guitar, electric guitar, percussion, programming, violin (10)
• Richard Boardman – drum programming, synthesizer (4, 11); keyboards (10)
• Burns – all instruments (5)
• Pablo Bowman – backing vocals (5), guitar (10)

Technical

• Colin Leonard – masterer
• Jaycen Joshua – mixer (1, 2, 6–9, 12, 13)
• Serban Ghenea – mixer (3)
• Tom Norris – mixer (5)
• Mitch McCarthy – mixer (10)
• Greg Kurstin – recording engineer (2)
• Alex Pasco – recording engineer (2)
• Julian Burg – recording engineer (2)
• Burns – recording engineer (5)
• Devon Corey – vocal engineer (2)
• Jon Hume – vocal engineer (2)