September 2022 was an excellent month for music, with some of the most catchy and well-written projects of the year being released. In addition to the new Bladee and Freddie Gibbs albums (which I highly recommend!), my favorite music of the month included the eclectic indie rock of Alex G’s God Save the Animals and Weezer’s trademark melodic alt-rock on the newest addition to their SZNZ series, Autumn. Despite all four aforementioned albums being very excellent, no album impressed me more than The Beths’ playful power pop masterpiece, Expert In A Dying Field.
The Beths are undoubtedly in the running for the most consistent band working today. Over the past four years, they’ve put out three near-perfect albums filled to the brim with some of the tightest guitar work and catchiest hooks you’ll ever hear. Expert In A Dying Field is no exception. From the lilting chorus of the title track to the subtle dissonance in “Change In The Weather,” there’s hardly a song on the record that won’t wedge itself firmly in your brain, teasing you for days on end. Every song contains moments of pure bliss, where frontwoman Elizabeth Stokes’ voice melds with the backing vocals and crunchy guitars to create moving, earthy moments of fleeting perfection.
Yet for all the catchy jollity of its soundscapes, Expert In A Dying Field is a largely pessimistic record. Take the chorus of the opening track, for example: “You can’t let go/You can’t stop, can’t rewind/Love is learned over time/Till you’re an expert in a dying field.” Despite being sung in an upbeat, earworm melody over major-key chords, this is a decidedly downcast perspective. Stokes believes love to be an unworthy endeavor, as, in her experience, relationships tend to dissolve over time. She puts in so much effort learning to love someone until that love disappears and she is left as “an expert in a dying field.” Nonetheless, she covers her regret and failure to move on in bright soundscapes to dull the pain.
This dissonance between instrumentation and lyricism continues throughout the record, perhaps most present on “Best Left.” Over heavy and shimmering shoegaze guitars and group vocals, Stokes sings, “Well past productivity/Deep down in my misery/This instinct will bury me.” The instinct she refers to is that of “Pulling it up/From the wet ground” – trying to revive her relationship, despite it clearly being dead and “rot[ting].” Her unending focus on her past relationship keeps her from moving on, yet she continues to mask this “misery” with pop melodies and uptempo songs.
This tension is only resolved in the final track, “2am,” where The Beths do away with the optimistic facade and Stokes addresses her emotions head-on. Though the song largely continues the pessimistic nature of her previous lyrics, one line gives a hope of change. Describing the night after their breakup, she describes herself as, “Still awake, playing chase with the sunrise.” Despite being crushed by the lost love, she’s chasing the sunrise. She’s looking forward to the morning and the start of a new day – the beginning of a new chapter. These lyrics, despite being optimistic, are backed by a melancholy, sparse arrangement that gives room for her to breathe. She’s not smothering her pain in candy-coated melodies and jangly guitars anymore, and this vulnerability gives her the power to move on. The song ends with an extended post-rock outro, where wailing guitars depict her newfound catharsis, enabled by honesty and authenticity.
Expert In A Dying Field is a deeply tragic record. Much of its runtime is spent packing in as many hooks and anthemic choruses as possible, burying vulnerability in mountains of sleek vocal harmonies. It’s a startling demonstration of the emotional stagnancy that comes with superficiality. But for all its masquerading, Expert In A Dying Field offers a glimmer of hope. It suggests that when people learn to confront and openly acknowledge their pain, growth is possible. Expert In A Dying Field can certainly be taken as a cautionary tale of what happens when emotions are buried, but I much prefer to see it as a step toward healing.
