''Beauty Pill Describes Things as They Are'' is the second full-length CD by the band
Beauty Pill
Beauty Pill is an American rock band from Washington, D.C., based largely around the songs and ideas of singer/guitarist/producer Chad Clark.
Beauty Pill's music is generally characterized by cinematic arrangements, angular melodies, and electro ...
. It was the band's first non-Dischord release. It was recorded at Artisphere, a museum in Arlington, VA, as part of a commissioned art project called ''Immersive Ideal'' in which the recording sessions were conducted in view of the public. They completed one song per day, and Chad Clark felt the pressure of the recording process infused the music with an energetic quality. The music is more electronic in nature than the band's previous recordings because Clark's health issues prevented him from lifting a guitar for a time.
Critical reception
The album was met with wide critical acclaim.
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
listed it as one of the 50 Best Albums of 2015, and ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' listed it as one of the "15 Best Albums You Didn't Hear in 2015". ''Magnet Magazine'' declared it album of the year, and said it "Takes a sledgehammer to boundaries and orthodoxies. Recalls both 'Revolver' and 'Stankonia.''"
''Noisey'' declared it "One of the most unique and engrossing albums of 2015", while ''Pitchfork'' characterized it as "a smorgasbord of angles, melodies, loops, pockets, and fractal surfaces that nonetheless refuse to deviate from the mythic power of the pop hook."
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
named it the seventh best album of 2015.
Track listing
#"Drapetomania!" – 3:36
#"Afrikaner Barista" – 6:42
#"Ann the Word" – 6:44
#"Steven & Tiwonge" – 4:24
#"Aint a Jury in the World Gon' Convict You, Baby" – 4:00
#"Exit Without Saving" – 3:42
#"The Prize" – 4:23
#"Dog with Rabbit in Mouth, Unharmed" – 5:22
#"For Pretend" – 4:51
#"When Cornered" – 3:30
#"Near Miss Stories" – 5:45
#"Ann the Word" (
Lungfish
Lungfish are freshwater vertebrates belonging to the order Dipnoi. Lungfish are best known for retaining ancestral characteristics within the Osteichthyes, including the ability to breathe air, and ancestral structures within Sarcopterygii, i ...
cover) – 7:10
Personnel
* Basla Andolsun – bass, guitar
* Chad Clark – vocals, guitar, beats, sounds, treatments, songs
* Jean Cook – vocals, strings, Wurlitzer, piano, synthesizer
* Drew Doucette – guitar, bass
* Abram Goodrich – drums, guitar, bass, synthesizer, vibraphone, percussion
* Devin Ocampo – drums, guitar, synthesizer, bass
References
{{Authority control
2015 albums
Beauty Pill albums