Expert In A Dying Feild

Description

The 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 Expert, 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.
Most of Expert was 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, Expert finally became the record they were hearing in their
heads.Expert is an extension of the same skuzzy palette the band has built across
their catalog, pop hooks embedded in incisive indie rock.