For my inaugural post I told myself that I would start at the bottom and work my way up, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to shout about The Beths from every rooftop I can gain access to.

This was a completely random selection. I had been trawling the Bandcamp “cassette” homepage, selecting sample music that was presented to me, and kind of liked the title track on this album. Later, I gave it a proper listen, and something immediately clicked. It clicked hard. It still does as I write this and I haven’t even queued up the album to listen to during this draft.

Just so you know, I won’t talk about every track because I don’t want to be forced to analyze every single song. Instead, I’ll focus on the tracks which really speak to me and leave you to decide if you want to follow up with the rest of them.

So let’s go.

Expert in a Dying Field

“How do you know it’s over when you can’t let go?”

There are many, many songs on this album that punch me in the gut, but this one line from the title track is the knife that ends it all. “Expert in a Dying Field” is about moving on from a relationship; it doesn’t try to suggest the why (although romantic relationships are heavily insinuated), allowing it to speak to almost every single parting that we experience in our lives. The title is paired with the line “love is learned over time”, telling us that we become familiar with this kind of loss over the course of our lives, and that it never gets easier.

I find a very 90’s quality about The Beths, which is my eternal soft-spot because it’s the period of my life I consider to be the most formative. In the case of this track I am reminded of the girl I dated throughout most of my time in the early 90’s. We had broken up and gotten back together frequently during that time, until we didn’t. Neither of us seemed to know it was over when it was over until hard decisions were made, which somehow made things much worse than if we’d just accepted an ending we both agreed on. I don’t hold a torch for her these days, but the memory of that time are painfully evoked by this song, and I don’t actually hate the song for it.

Silence is Golden

I don’t have heavy thoughts about this one. Instead, I appreciate it for it’s heavy musicality which is at odds with the name of the song. The syncopated lyrical delivery is off-putting at first, but the more I listen to it the more it appeals to me. At face value, this is about finding actual silence after focusing on the noises — no matter how obscure — that surround us. If there’s a deeper meaning, I am unwilling to search for it because I appreciate the sentiment.

Your Side

This could be the companion track to “Expert in a Dying Field”, as it’s about wanting to be with someone regardless of whatever circumstances came between us an them. While that isn’t always a healthy way to think about relationships, the music and Stokes’ delivery make it seem like it’s the right decision to make, no matter the distance.

I Want to Listen

Although this is not a long song and the lyrics come at you quickly, there’s a lot going on here. From what I can parse, it’s about supporting our significant others (or friends, if that’s your situation) despite all of the crap going on in our own lives. Everyone needs someone like this, but it’s hard. Our problems are our own and to be there for others is an additional burden. Do we take that on as well? And if we do, do we rise to the occasion or does it just drag us down?

Best Left

This is very much a song about knowing better, but still doing what we know we shouldn’t. I like this song because of it’s straightforward assertion that “some things are best left to rot” but then turning around to do them anyway. It’s something we all relate to, and bringing the entire band in on the chorus just adds weight to the sentiment.

When You Know You Know

Contrast this to all that has come before, this is an affirmation that “when you know, you know” when it comes to someone you want to spend your time with. Even though we’re certain, we aren’t always certain that the other person is on the same page, so this song is a statement that we’re all in, “tit for tat, that is you for me”.

A Passing Rain

This is a song about loyalty, from the perspective of someone who questions why. Admittedly, where I’m at right now doesn’t really resonate with this song, but I am not so old that I can’t remember a time when I questioned why, despite my faults, my S.O. was sticking with me.

2am

This one kills me in a different way. Back in college we had a group of tight knit friends who spent a lot of time together, living in the same dorm. Being young and with boundless energy, we’d be up until all hours of the night, sometimes together, sometimes in pairs, hanging out and talking about things. While the song talks about a situation where a friendship (or more) falls apart, I think about how now most of those people I knew in college have drifted away. I keep in sporadic touch with a few, but others have vanished. I sometimes wonder what we all had during that time, and whether it was as real as I thought it was, considering the fact that no one seems too interested in reconnecting these days. How does that happen?

The Rest

I feel really bad about not having something profound or personal to say about the tracks I didn’t cover — Knees Deep, Head in the Clouds, Change in the Weather, I Told You That I Was Afraid, A Real Thing, or Watching the Credits — because I consider every song on this album a total banger.

Final Thoughts

I think the thing that really does it for me with The Beths is that their music is aggressively upbeat and Elizabeth Stokes vocals are poetic in their recitation. The lyrics, however, are honest and reflective, and even optimistic on occasion. Artists often write about their own lives so whatever Elizabeth and team have experienced, I feel like I’ve been right there with them despite decades of distance between them and myself. Some things never really change, I guess.

Writing and singing about heartbreak, loss of opportunities, and life’s experience might seem novel or just fodder for musical artists who need relatable content for their work, but for me, someone who’s life has become a steady stream of reliability, these songs grab me by the lapels and drag me forcibly back to a period of uncertainty. I know that in those times I was upset, sad, angry, and hopeful in turn; now I look back and can relive those memories in full force through this music while also knowing that my life has turned out pretty OK despite the trials and tribulations of my youth that these songs remind me of. Knowing the ending doesn’t dilute the impact of the journey that brought me here, but it does make me appreciate it so much more in the company of people who understand.

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