{"product_id":"the-beths-expert-in-a-dying-field-canary-yellow-vinyl","title":"The Beths - Expert In A Dying Field - Canary Yellow Vinyl","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOn The Beths’ new album\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eExpert In A Dying Field\u003c\/i\u003e, Elizabeth Stokes’ songwriting positions her somewhere between being a novelist and a documentarian. The songs collected here are autobiographical, but they’re also character sketches of relationships – platonic, familial, romantic – 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’ve become in a person, once they’re gone from your life?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe 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\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eExpert\u003c\/i\u003e, 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMost of\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eExpert\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003ewas recorded at guitarist Jonathan Pearce’s studio on Karangahape Road in Tāmaki 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’d 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,\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eExpert\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003efinally became the record they were hearing in their heads.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eExpert\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eis an extension of the same skuzzy palette the band has built across their catalog, pop hooks embedded in incisive indie rock. The album’s title track “Expert In A Dying Field” introduces the thesis for the record\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e: “How does it feel to be an expert in a dying field? How do you know it’s over when you can’t let go?”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eStokes asks.\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e“Love is learned over time ‘til you’re an expert in a dying field.”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe rest is a capsule of The Beths’ most electrifying and exciting output, a sonic spectrum: “Your Side” is a forlorn and sincere love song, emotive; while “Silence is Golden,” with its propulsive drum line and stop-start staccato of a guitar line winding up and down, is one of the band’s sharpest and most driving. “When You Know You Know” skews a bit groovier, pure pop and a natural addition to the band’s live set. “Knees Deep” was written last minute, but yields one of the best guitar lines on\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eExpert\u003c\/i\u003e. There’s a certain chaos across the 12 tracks, the palpable joy of playing music with long-time friends colliding with the raw nerves of pain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"st__content-block st__content-block--text\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eStokes strings it all together through her singular songwriting lens, earnest and self-effacing, 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’t 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’ output since 2016. In the face of pain, there’s no dwelling on internal anguish - instead, through The Beths’ music, our shortcomings are met with acceptance. And\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eExpert In A Dying Field\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis the most tactile that tenderness has been.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"The Beths","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44641501315380,"sku":"","price":23.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0735\/2208\/6196\/products\/CAK164LP.webp?v=1678359418","url":"https:\/\/16-kingland.myshopify.com\/products\/the-beths-expert-in-a-dying-field-canary-yellow-vinyl","provider":"16 Kingland","version":"1.0","type":"link"}