The Beths – Expert In A Dying Field PRE ORDER: 28\/04\/23 REPRESS ON BONE COLOUR VINYL. COMES WITH 24\u00e2\u20ac\u009dx24\u00e2\u20ac\u009d POSTER + DOWNLOAD CARD + GATEFOLD JACKET. On The Beths\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 new album Expert In A Dying Field, Elizabeth Stokes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 songwriting positions her somewhere between being a novelist and a documentarian. The songs collected here are autobiographical, but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re also character sketches of relationships \u00e2\u20ac\u201c platonic, familial, romantic \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and more importantly, their aftermaths. The shapes and ghosts left in absences. The question that hangs in the air: what do you do with how intimately versed you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve become in a person, once they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re gone from your life? The third LP from the New Zealand quartet houses 12 jewels of tight, guitar-heavy songs that worm their way into your head, an incandescent collision of power-pop and skuzz. With Expert, The Beths wanted to make an album meant to be experienced live, for both the listeners and themselves. They wanted it to be fun — to hear, to play — in spite of the prickling anxiety throughout the lyrics, the fear of change and struggle to cope. Most of Expert was recorded at guitarist Jonathan Pearce\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s studio on Karangahape Road in T\u00c4\u0081maki Makaurau, Aotearoa (Auckland, New Zealand) — and sometimes in the building’s cavernous stairwell at 1am — toward the end of 2021, until they were interrupted by a four-month national lockdown. They traded notes remotely for months, songwriting from afar and fleshing out the arrangements alone, the first time they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d written together in such a way. The following February, The Beths left the country for the first time in more than two years to tour across the US, and simultaneously finish mixing the album on the road. That latter half felt more collaborative, with everyone on-hand to trade notes in real time, until it all culminated in a chaotic three-day studio mad-dash in Los Angeles. There, Expert finally became the record they were hearing in their heads. Expert is an extension of the same skuzzy palette the band has built across their catalog, pop hooks embedded in incisive indie rock. The album\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s title track \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Expert In A Dying Field\u00e2\u20ac\u009d introduces the thesis for the record: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How does it feel to be an expert in a dying field? How do you know it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s over when you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let go?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Stokes asks. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Love is learned over time \u00e2\u20ac\u02dctil you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re an expert in a dying field.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The rest is a capsule of The Beths\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 most electrifying and exciting output, a sonic spectrum: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Your Side\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a forlorn and sincere love song, emotive; while \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Silence is Golden,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with its propulsive drum line and stop-start staccato of a guitar line winding up and down, is one of the band\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sharpest and most driving. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When You Know You Know\u00e2\u20ac\u009d skews a bit groovier, pure pop and a natural addition to the band\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s live set. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Knees Deep\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was written last minute, but yields one of the best guitar lines on Expert. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a certain chaos across the 12 tracks, the palpable joy of playing music with long-time friends colliding with the raw nerves of pain. Stokes strings it all together through her singular songwriting lens, earnest and selfeffacing, zeroing in on the granules of doubt and how they snowball. Did I do the wrong thing? Or did you? And are we still good people at the end of it? She isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interested in villains, but instead interested in just telling the story. That insecurity and thoughtfulness, translated into universality and understanding, has been the guiding light of The Beths\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 output since 2016. In the face of pain, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no dwelling on internal anguish – instead, through The Beths\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 music, our shortcomings are met with acceptance. And Expert In A Dying Field is the most tactile that tenderness has been. Tracklisting 1. Expert In A Dying Field 2. Knees Deep 3. Silence Is Golden 4. Your Side 5. I Want To Listen 6. Head In The Clouds 7. Best Left 8. Change In The Weather 9. When You Know You Know 10. A Passing Rain 11. I Told You That I Was Afraid 12. 2am<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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