wheres beth for my mom and other lovers - photo of a woman bathing a baby in the kitchen sink

Where’s Beth – for my mom & other lovers

Back in August we wrote about ‘Come Inside’, the first single from New York‘s Where’s Beth. The song served as the ideal introduction to the idiosyncratic work of Sarabeth Weszely, its lush sound woven from careful detail, its tone at once sincere and frank. “The gentle hushed tones bel[y] the track’s underlying nuance,” we wrote, “threads spun to hold the listener within a quiet space.”

The song is the opening track from for my mom & other lovers, an EP out now via Pitch & Prose. The label describe the collection as somewhere between Joni Mitchell and Kimya Dawson, poetic and playful and grounded in experience. The sound of a specific life caught in all of its peculiar detail. Take the slowly building ‘Meat’, its sincerity underlined by a certain mischief, the daring willingness to say what she really thinks. Or ‘La Abundancia’ with its delicate bed of acoustic and electric guitars supporting Weszely’s singular lyrics. Part confession, part ode to life itself. An acknowledgement of the latent beauty in everything, as well as the inevitable transience of even the most important and strong.

Even this abundance will grow tired inside of me
Even this green life will grow tired inside of me
Even this unbearable joy will grow tired in me

The gentle toe-tapping rhythm of ‘Want’ again belies its confessional vulnerability, while ‘Angela’ lingers with the almost-there vividness of a cherished memory. Though again the Where’s Beth personality shows through, Weszely’s name dropping of things like IKEA helping to add a real world banal to the hazy poetry. The success of the writing is how this accentuates rather than undercuts the overall mood, and never feels like a winking irony. Rather the truest picture of a particular moment, a particular time. A particular person standing amid it all.

for my mom & other lovers is out now via Pitch & Prose and you can get it from the Where’s Beth Bandcamp page.