- I don’t know about you but I was under the impression I’d uncovered all the tops music my old man was listening to by the time high school had come and gone but boy howdy, having said sentiment proved wrong was a right proper delight and it was when the evidence to the contrary was The Beths. Hailing from off of New Zealand, the three-turned-four-piece power pop crew are following up on 2018’s Future Me Hates Me with this new effort Jump Rope Gazers. There’s no outstanding departure from what we were gifted back in day but, at the same time, it doesn’t regurgitate what we have already digested.
Chockas with Bad Religion harmonies and complimentary melody-filled instrumentals, The Beths know their craft; and now they execute this craft even better. It comes as no surprise then, all four of those involved are academic musicians, which is amplified by their palpable chemistry. Immediate back-to-back I’m Not Getting Excited and Dying To Believe whip up exactly what I love about The Beths. It's fast power pop with equal parts punk enthusiasm and deftly delivered, quick refrains. The latter of the two songs I mentioned was such an obvious choice for a lead single and it's fantastic. The tail end plays around with song structure as the rhythm breakdown welcomes a public transport voice over. Once we’re back on track, vocals going over a rollercoaster dip help us along a few stops. It makes me want to go on a music pilgrimage to ride trains until I hear this sample.
The record has a running theme of longing for a partner separated by distance and, to me, Acrid is a perfect summation of this. A laundry list of relatable similes is carried by an infectious vocal line which oscillates between an earnest tone and a sublime falsetto right out of the City And Colour's repertoire. If you can picture your own version of the “you” Elizabeth Stokes is singing about, this song will live rent free in your head and heart. Dotted throughout Jump Rope Gazers are slower, more melancholy songs that lean heavily into the elements of early naughties emo, which liberally pepper the band's sound. A standout amidst these daily diary musical entries is Do You Want Me Now. It grows from a bare bones auditory love letter to a bedroom pop demo sent directly to the apple of the song’s eye, equipped with a simple drum loop underneath and finally blossoming into full band inclusion. You Are A Beam of Light deconstructs chords into twinkling arpeggios and laments about a crappy internet connection disrupting a phone call. I was going to make an NBN joke here but I don’t really know much about the Kiwi’s broadband situation (ed.: no surprises, it's much better than ours)…what I do know is that a vast majority of people would have experienced this pain at some stage and the gentle knowing this song has is so damn endearing. It continues by pulling back the underutilised falsetto into frame from previous songs and this time pairs it with full band harmonies. To close proceedings, Just Shy of Sure shows The Beths brandishing their best: the jangled, faint chords push the song along with barely audible bells tingling in the background. A glimmering glitch washes over the final portions and send us on our way with a kiss on the forehead.
Please, let this Trans-Tasman travel bubble be a thing. I really fucking want to see these songs live performed by The Beths, in the flesh.
- Matt Lynch.