"more life" - (Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are)

Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are

Why you'll love it: Pop music for smart people

Why you'll hate it: Lacks punch, sometimes aloof

Here's a common thought for a lot of the posts on this blog.  "This album is a bit too long.  If they had cut tracks until there were only 30-40 minutes, this would  make much more of an impact."  Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are is no exception.  Although, if there was one excuse for a low-energy experimental pop album to last over an hour, Chad Clark has it.  If not for modern medicine and some luck, he'd be dead today.

With a very real cardiovascular scare hopefully in the rear view, Clark dusts off Beauty Pill, which had been on the shelf for nearly ten years.  You wouldn't figure it from his delivery, but Clark grew out if the DC punk scene and the Discord Records label.  So let's review what we know so far - Reunion album, new lease on life, experimental pop music using modern production tools for the first time, a socially-minded songwriter... yeah, ok, I think you've earned the right to make a hour long album.

What makes Beauty Pill stand out is what also dooms them to obscurity.  It's coffeehouse volume pop, with tinges of French and Japanese influences; but twee catchiness isn't the objective here.  As a result, the music never is quite as fun as it probably leads itself on to be.  Cynicism spurts out of every lyric like beheading in a samurai film.  The words are razor sharp, but Clark's style has never been visceral.  More like a wallflower, he softly dismantles culture's mixed messages ("For Pretend"), social injustice (“Steven & Tiwonge”), and his own profession ("Exit Without Saving").  All these songs could easily be microphone swinging bangers without changing a single word.

Beauty Pill Describes... is clearly meant to be enjoyed as a "sit down and pay attention" sort of album.  It's lyrically dense, with a lot to say, and there are well layered melodies than can be picked apart with repeated plays.  I have to admit... my favorite tracks are because of hooks that just plain refuse to get boring.  "Near Miss Stories" is Clark's deepest dive into what almost was end of his life, but it's the riff bouncing from line to line in the verses that has me playing it over and over.  "Afrikaner Barista"'s weird time signatures and warped synth lines sound like a jukebox in The Black Lodge.  The only true knock I have on this album is Jean Cook's vocals.  They just don't do anything for me, and I feel her songs coincidentally meander around to no real satisfaction.

I keep going back and forth on what I think about this album.  At face value, it's no surprise to me I've never heard of this band until this year.  As a fan of Stereolab and 4 Bonjour's Parties, Beauty Pill scratches the itch for soft and classy pop music that I often get.  If not for that itch though, this band would probably drift past me like smoke.  It's another one of those bands that I love for existing, but my appreciation for the actual product is never as enthusiastic.