The Beths – Jump Rope Gazers

Description

Everything changed for The Beths when they released their debut album, Future MeHates Me, in 2018. The indie rock band had long been nurtured within Auckland,New Zealands 2ght-knit music scene, working full-2me during the day and playingmusic with friends azer hours. Full of uptempo pop rock songs with bright, indeliblehooks, the LP garnered them cri2cal acclaim from outlets like Pitchfork and RollingStone, and they set out for their first string of shows overseas. They quit their jobs,said goodbye to their home town, and devoted themselves en2rely to performingacross North America and Europe. They found themselves playing to crowds ofdevoted fans and opening for acts like Pixies and Death Cab for Cu2e. Almostinstantly, The Beths turned from a passion project into a full-2me career in music.

Songwriter and lead vocalist Elizabeth Stokes worked on what would become TheBeths second LP, Jump Rope Gazers, in between these intense periods of touring.Like the groups earlier music, the album tackles themes of anxiety and self-doubtwith effervescent power pop choruses and rousing backup vocals, zeroing in on thecommunality and catharsis that can come from sharing stressful situa2ons with someof your best friends. Stokess wri2ng on Jump Rope Gazers grapples with the uneasyproposi2on of leaving everything and everyone you know behind on anothercon2nent, chasing your dreams while struggling to stay close with loved ones backhome.
“If you’re at a certain age, all your friends scafer to the four winds, Stokes says. Wedid the same thing. When you’re home, you miss everybody, and when you’re away,you miss everybody. We were just missing people all the 2me.

With songs like the rambunc2ous Dying To Believe and the tender, shoegazey Outof Sight, The Beths reckon with the distance that life necessarily drives betweenpeople over 2me. People who love each other inevitably fail each other. Im sorry forthe way that I cant hold conversa2ons/Theyre such a fragile thing to try to supportthe weight of, Stokes sings on Dying to Believe. The best way to repair that failure,in The Beths view, is with abundant and uncondi2onal love, no mafer how far it hasto travel. On Out of Sight, she pledges devo2on to a dearly missed friend: If yourworld collapses/Ill be down in the rubble/Id build you another, she sings.

It was a rough year in general, and I found myself saying the words, ‘wish you werehere, wish I was there, over and over again, she says of the 2me period in which thealbum was wrifen. Touring far from home, The Beths commifed themselves totaking care of each other as they were trying at the same 2me to take care of friendsliving thousands of miles away. They encouraged each other to communicatewhenever things got hard, and to pay forward acts of kindness whenever they could.That care and afen2on shines through on Jump Rope Gazers, where the quartetsounds more locked in than ever. Their most emo2ve and hearelt work to date,Jump Rope Gazers stares down all the hard parts of living in communion with otherpeople, even at a distance, while celebra2ng the ferocious joy that makes it all worthit — a sen2ment we need now more than ever.

Tracklist

1. I’m Not Gexng Excited
2. Dying to Believe
3. Jump Rope Gazers
4. Acrid
5. Do You Want Me Now
6. Out of Sight
7. Don’t Go Away
8. Mars, the God of War
9. You Are a Beam of Light
10. Just Shy of Sure