Such a situation is central to Expert In A Dying Field, the latest album The Beths. “How does it feel / To be an expert in a dying field?” asks lead Elizabeth Stokes in the opener and title track, speaking from the aftermath of a relationship where years of effort and learning have lost their purpose. The beginning of a more general exploration of the idea of moving on, even when those intimate details recorded and memorised still feel so pressing. Even while the ghosts remain.

Hours of phrases I’ve memorized
Thousands of lines on the page
All of my notes in a desolate pile
I haven’t touched in an age

The rise of the Aotearoa band has been something to behold. The four-piece—Stokes (guitar, vocals), Jonathan Pearce (guitar), Benjamin Sinclair (bass), and Tristan Deck (drums)—have won hearts and minds around the world since announcing themselves with debut EP Warm Blood back in 2016. Expert In A Dying Field is The Beths third LP (following 2018’s Future Hates Me and 2020’s Jump Rope Gazers) and represents another step towards perfecting their characteristic blend of pop hooks, punk scuzz and dynamic indie rock, all tied together by Stokes’s earnest and accomplished writing.

This might be The Beths’ biggest strength. How they manage to make awkward post-relationship angst feel somehow affirming, like an intravenous shot of “things will be okay” positivity regardless of whether Stokes’s lyrics share the same optimism. It has something to do with the songs’ candid nature, leaving nothing guarded or muddied by shame, a kind of open-heartedness that keeps things on a knife edge, continues to see possibility and wonder even in the deadest of dead ends.

Such a dynamic energy marks Expert In A Dying Field. Because for all the authentic emotion and reflection, this is a record written with live performance in mind. Full of small moments that spark with inexplicable electricity, suffused with joy despite its difficult subject matter. A collection of songs that are supposed to be fun, both for the audience to listen to and, crucially, for the band to play. Resulting in a record which sounds, above all, like a group of friends doing what they love.

‘Your Side’ has the shiny unreality of a doe-eyed daydream, Stokes imagining an ex- dropping everything to rush to her (“don’t cry, I’m on the next flight, to be by your side”), when in reality she is “mixing drinks and messages” alone. ‘Knees Deep’ is an upbeat and catchy pop song about coming to terms with not being fearless. “The shame, I wish that I was brave enough to dive in,” Stokes sings during the chorus, “but I nevеr have been and never will be / I’m coming in hot then freezing completely.” Closer ‘2am’ on the other hand is the record’s sole slow-burner, sharing all the late-night quiet of its title. But no matter the changes of shade and tone, this vigour shines through.

The result is a kind of transubstantiation. Doubt and sadness offered up with such sincere passion they are somehow transformed into a form of empathy. Across the record, Stokes documents a whole host of losses and their accompanying wounds. Be it suffering the white noise of anxiety (‘Silence is Golden’), praying on her knees (‘Head in the Clouds’) or crying in the rain (‘When You Know You Know’). But the experiences are processed through the band’s irrepressible energy. The Beths magic formula. A way to transform the personal into the universal. Trauma into a reason to love and live.

Expert In A Dying Field is out now via Carpark Records. Get it in a variety of formats from the Carpark Records Bandcamp page.

The post The Beths – Expert In A Dying Field appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Here is a list of songs from 2020 that we liked but didn’t get around to writing about.

If you find something you like, follow the link in the embed to support the artists and labels on Bandcamp. And of course, there is a whole year’s worth of pieces on releases we did manage to write about, so have an explore through our reviews, previews and interviews from 2020.

The post Music We Missed in 2020 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

2nd Grade – Favorite Song
Adeline Hotel – Lightning
Adrianne Lenker – Cradle
Allison’s Gate – Traces
Anna McClellan – Heart of Hearts
Advance Base – Christmas in Nightmare City
Badlands – Slow it Down
Bambara – José Tries to Leave
The Beths – Whatever
Bodega – Jack in Titanic
boygenius – Me & My Dog
Camp Cope – UFO Lighter
Campdogzzz – Sorceress
Cave People – I Shall Believe
Damien Jurado – Percy Faith
Dead Painters – Fool on Fire
Dear Nora – Simulation Feels
Dehd – Dying For
Devon Welsh – Vampires
Diva Sweetly – Detox Island
Doe – Heated
Dusted – Outline of a Wolf
Field Report – Every Time
Frankie Valet – Something to do with a mouth
Gia Margaret – Birthday
Goodbye Max – Old Photos
Good Good Blood – Cannot Be Yours Forever
Gorgeous Bully – Patience
Great Health – Lazarus
Hop Along – How Simple
Hour – At the bar where you literally saved me from fatal heartbreak 
Houses – Fast Talk
Hovvdy – Brave
Hypoluxo – Kentucky Smooth
IAN SWEET – Hiding
Kal Marks – Today I Walked Down To The Tree, Read A Book, And When I Was Done, I Went Back Inside
Katy Kirby – Juniper
Kevin Morby & Waxahatchee – Dark Don’t Hide It
Kississippi – Easier to Love
Kraków Loves Adana – The Day the Internet Died
Lala Lala – Destroyer
Lisa/Liza – Tea Kettle
lowly loverboi – Graveyards in Space
Lucy Dacus – Yours & Mine
Mike Pace & the Child Actors – Escape the Noise
Miranda Winters – The Futuristic District
Mitski – Nobody
Moonface – Minotaur Forgiving Pasiphae
Moon Racer – Friendly Ghost
Nap Eyes – Every Time the Feeling
Nice Try – Micah
Nicole Dollanganger – Uncle
No Age – Drippy
Oceanator – Mistakes
Of The Valley – Ride Alone
Pale Kids – St. Theresa
Pat Moon – I Belong
Pema – Depend
Petal – I’m Sorry
Pink Navel – born-100.dev
Pizza Girl – Body Part
Protomartyr – Wheel of Fortune
Remember Sports – Dripping
Restorations – Nonbeliever
Rivulets – Everything Goes
Ryan Von Gonten – Fabrique
Sabriel’s Orb – Holding
Saccharine – Pumpkin Guts
Sam Moss – Snap
Sara Renberg – Take the Summer Off
Sobs – Sundae
Spartan Jet-Plex – Sweet
Strange Ranger – The Wires
Sun June – Slow Rise II
Swearin’ – Dogpile
Talk, Tired Thanatoid – Everything’s Cool
Tomberlin – Any Other Way
Trace Mountains – Salty Sweet
Trust Fall – Wild Fire/Flowers
TVU – All For Nothing
Weakened Friends – Blue Again
Whitney Baleen – Rainer
Why Bonnie – Stereo
Wild Pink – The Seance on St. Augustine Street
wished bone – reasons
Yellowfront – Cool Breeze
Young Jesus – For Nana
Young Statues – Somebody Else
Yowler – Where Is My Light?

If you missed it, we have also posted our favourite albums list, so check that out too.

The post Favourite Songs of 2018 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Kalle Mattson – Twice The Gifts

We’ve been fans of Kalle Mattson for a number of years now, appreciating his distinctly emotive and perceptive songwriting. So, though we’re not big on Christmas music as a rule, his new single ‘Twice the Gifts’ forced us to reconsider—a delicate, tender song that uses the holiday season as a pressure on already existing cracks.

“My parents got divorced something like the day after I was born,” Mattson explains. “So my only memories of Christmas & the holidays are divorced ones. Spending half the day at one house then driving to the next. Two dinners, double the families, and yes twice the gifts.” The song is Xmas stripped of its idealist image, an ode to the non-nuclear family at a time when traditional structures are broadcast from every screen.

Supermercat – Johnny Rack

Self-describing as “friendly punk with a splash of Sheryl Crow,” LA’s Supermercat make a boisterous yet accessible brand of rock that combines the attitude of punk with the singalong value of pop and ties them together with something of a country swagger. Therefore, single ‘Johnny Rack’ could be seen a bouncy slice of fun or a scathing stare down, depending on your frame of mind, though in reality it is likely that is both at once—showing that, with a fierce enough spirit, you can let the good times and heads roll.

You can find Supermercat on Bandcamp.

Be Forest – Bengala

Be Forest are a trio from Italy that create a shoegaze-inspired post-punk, and next February sees them release, Knocturne, their first album in five years. The enlisting of Josh Bonati (Zola Jesus, David Lynch) should give a clue as to the direction of the new record, pushing out in surreal, mesmeric directions to create a rich black sound not entirely of our world.

Lead single ‘Bengala’ is the case in point, though however brooding, represents one of the brightest moments on the record, the song that helps us navigate the rest. “Bengala is the spotlight that lights up the stage after the curtains open,” the band explain. “A celestial body which at the moment of its impact allows us to glimpse our surroundings it’s the brightest point, the north of the compass. This is, though, only ONE of the coordinates of Knocturne. Perhaps the most reassuring.”

Gabriel Birnbaum – Stack the Miles

You might know Gabriel Birnbaum from Wilder Maker, the Brooklyn band who themselves put out a great record this year, and those familiar with his writing will be pleased to learn of a solo album due out on 2019. There’s not much to go on yet, though lead single ‘Stack the Miles’ certainly raises expectations, with Birnbaum’s distinctive delivery driving a track that’s understated yet shot through with real feeling and some brilliant turns of phrase (“the highway’s all police like Chekov’s gun”). As such, the track joins the likes of Monarch Mtn. in painting detailed canvases of American life through poetic imagery and a pervasive atmosphere—a detached, anxious world where miracles and meaninglessness intertwine.

“Water patterns on the window shift like static on tv
in the parking lot by the restaurant, silently
without even the desire for desire, watch the rain rearrange
it’s alphabet an infinite meaningless

I stack the miles I hope it’s enough
I stack the miles I hope it adds up
too many miracles here and I can’t take no more of the good times I’m done”

Grab the single now from the Gabriel Birnbaum Bandcamp page, and keep your eyes peeled for more information on the record.

Castle Pines – Castle Pines

Working out of Corona, CA, Castle Pines make music by and for the disaffected and uncool, anthems not for the performative weirdos of hipster scenes but those quiet, honest folks from blue collar and suburban households. Though the band are prolific, this self-titled single works as culmination of their previous work, bringing their ideals into one track. “We have been performing some version of this song live since we started back in 2009,” the band explain. “It has taken similar iterations but has always held this hazy recollection of the street Castle Pines and all the things that went down […] ‘Castle Pines’ is the capstone of our story as a band, and it is’ both a sad chronicle of suffering and a bright start to better times ahead.”

The song is composed from different facets of contemporary suffering, playing as American dread viewed through a compound eye. Death, poverty, addiction and terrorism are the backdrop, and the foreground the persistent hope of finding a safe home—though one that is itself shaped by nostalgia, pining for a time that can no longer return, the Second Coming of a once famous glory.

No Aloha – The Big One

Based in Portland and with close ties to Salem, No Aloha are a five-piece led by principle songwriters Blake Ferrin and Brette Irish,  the latter having just signed with the fine folks at Good Cheer Records as a solo artist. Which is to take nothing away from the band themselves, because No Aloha are just as worthy of your time. Drawing on the vague doom that hangs over the tectonically-active Pacific Northwest, ‘The Big One’ is a single “about being in a big earthquake and only being able to worry what your crush is doing.” The result is cataclysm for the romantics, where ever the bone-shaking earth can’t break the ties of young love.

You can find No Aloha on Bandcamp and Facebook, and watch Good Cheer Records for more on Brette Irish.

The Beths – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Auckland’s The Beth’s have had a whirlwind year, releasing their debut full-length Future Hates Me on Carpark Records, and touring all over the world. Their festive offering is a take on ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’, which sees them dial back their pop punk energy in favour of strings, what the band describe to The Spinoff as the Beths version of the Ella Fitzgerald version. All proceeds go to Girls Rock! Camp Aotearoa and Women’s Refuge too, so it’s all for a good cause.

Blue Ranger – Ah My

It’s been a weird year with lots of distractions, meaning a fair number of great records have slipped past before we could write about them. One such album was Saving a Beauty by Blue Ranger, so in lieu of the attention it deserves, we’re going to suggest you start with single ‘Ah My’ and discover the rest for yourself. The track highlights Josh Marre’s folk-leaning style and warm writing, giving a glimpse at the affectionate atmosphere that permeates the record. Christmas is a time for fondness, after all.

“Please would you mind
put your arms around me
please keep in mind
you’re sure that someone’s listening

keeping mine in mind”

Lampland – Don’t Drive

Ahead of a full-length album out early next year, New York’s Lampland has unveiled a new single, ‘Don’t Drive’. Fittingly, the song concerns the approach of a winter storm, snow and ice immobilising the city and trapping the principle characters within their apartment. The moment opens up a space within normal time, a relaxing of life that allows a certain magic inside, made all the more precious by the certainty that it will be over as quickly as it began. What could be more Christmassy than that?

“Don’t try to drive tonight
Pressures dropping I was right
Heavy shiver in the air
I don’t know why I’m laughing
You know the bridges freeze first?
And then the gin in your purse
And then the swimming pool where you work”

The post Bright Sparks: Christmas Special appeared first on Various Small Flames.

However, as always, we want to point out that ‘free’ does not have to mean pay nothing in this context. Indeed, the title of the post says ‘free’ music because it’s snappier than ‘name your price’ music, but really that’s a convenient/attention-grabbing misnomer. Last year we spoke about how paying artists makes for the best soil in which to sow creative seeds, and things are no different now. Indeed, with the dawn of Spotify and the all-powerful algorithms, it is more important than ever to support independent artists and labels, and in reality there are already enough free ways to consume music that we don’t need to encourage another.

So please delve into the below list, curated entirely by humans, and spend whatever is left of your Christmas money when you stumble across something you like. We can vouch for the quality of everything here, so don’t be afraid to judge a record by its cover to begin with.

Here’s a handy mix featuring one song from each of the free / ‘name your price’ albums featured:

The post Favourite Free Music of 2017 appeared first on Various Small Flames.