“The sound of a specific life caught in all of its peculiar detail.” That how we described Where’s Beth‘s EP For My Mom & Other Lovers back in 2022. Released via Pitch & Prose, the EP saw New York’s Sarabeth Weszely find a line between Joni Mitchell and Kimya Dawson to offer “sincerity underlined by a certain mischief” as we put it, pushing beyond simple binaries to offer a more convincing picture. The style was perhaps best encapsulated by the track ‘La Abundancia’. A song which melded electric and acoustic guitars into a decidedly fond soundscape, while Weszely’s vocals illustrate the earnest and playful spirit that marks the project. “Part confession, part ode to life itself,” as we wrote of the single. “An acknowledgement of the latent beauty in everything, as well as the inevitable transience of even the most important and strong.”
The latest Where’s Beth single ‘Wide Eyes’ builds upon the foundations laid by For My Mom & Other Lovers. A poignant, piano-led number which welcomes the audience into the reflective warmth of its world, then slowly reveals a mix of searching emotion and playful humour. Or as Weszely puts it “A little ambient folk comfort song for anyone who ever feels like a cat.” The track evokes the likes of Sufjan Stevens and Connie Converse, embracing its idiosyncratic style with conviction and grace to create a sense of authenticity—be it considering the strange experience of loneliness even within a network of loving relationships, or pushing the metaphor of the cat to better convey the contradictions of living day to day.
I’m like a cat
if you wait for me, I’ll come to you
And I’ll lay my weight upon you
‘til you’re not afraid
