I can't wait for the Beths' new album. All the songs that are out from it so far are SO good, in such cohesive but distinctly different ways. I haven't really been listening to stuff like this much over the last few years – it's mostly been an ambient and experimental period – but I've found myself drawn back to rewatch this video easily half a dozen times in the couple of days since it came out, and I simply cannot argue with results like that.
It's just so ebulliently loveable! Like, if you've ever been scared to do something and felt small and unworthy next to your beautiful braver friends, 'Knees Deep' is an anthem for you. It's wide eyes and wide grins and wide arms outstretched, and I don't feel like I need to say anything except watch it!
'Expert in a Dying Field', on the other hand, is a bit of a slower burn. Just as hooky, but with a central metaphor so rich and literary and sad that it feels like the best Weakerthans song anyone's managed to write since the Weakerthans broke up. Comparison always risks diminishment, but it's just very rare to have such gorgeous, plaintive, literary poetry paired so seamlessly with music as infectious as this. It's more than the 'bouncy music / sad words' contrast. It's arranging things so that the music trampolines the poetry like a stuffy academic letting loose, and the sadness makes every bounce hit harder and more desperately. You should watch it too!
