''Harmlessness'' is the second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band

The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die is an American indie rock band formed in Willimantic, Connecticut, in 2009. Following the release of several EPs and splits featuring original lead singer Thomas Diaz, they released ...

. It was announced on August 4, 2015, and was released on September 25. The title of the album is a play on the name of the band's first EP, ''Formlessness''.

Reception

''Harmlessness'' charted at number 11 on the

Heatseekers Albums Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...

chart, and at number 46 on the

Independent Albums The Independent Albums chart (previously titled Top Independent Albums) ranks the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays (EPs) in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by '' Billboard'' maga ...

chart. Upon release, the album received critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from specialized critics, the album received an average score of 84, based on 6 reviews. ''

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several award ...

'' placed the album at number 13 on their top 50 albums of 2015 list. James of ''Stereogum'' wrote: "It's not the kind of music that will change the world, but it might just change your life." Aaron Mook of ''

AbsolutePunk ''AbsolutePunk'' was a website, online community, and alternative music news source founded by Jason Tate (the most recent CEO). The website mainly focused on artists who are relatively unknown to mainstream audiences, but it was known to fea ...

'' wrote: "Harmlessness is ambitious and intimidating in scope; it is not an easy listen, but with the right amount of time and dedication, it is easily one of the most rewarding listens of 2015." "January 10th, 2014" appeared on a best-of emo songs list by ''

Vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...

''.

Legacy

In 2017, ''Harmlessness'' placed seventh on ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

''s list of the

emo revival The emo revival (also known as the post-emo revival, the Midwestern emo revival, and fourth wave emo) was an underground emo movement which came about in the late 2000s to early 2010s. Groups of the emo revival largely abandon the style of the mai ...

's 30 best albums, with writer Ian Cohen dubbing it "one of the most stunningly accomplished

records of the past decade." Several months later, Cohen called it "an astonishing redirection" for indie rock, seeing it anticipate the genre's impending fusion of the late 90's

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

scene's "experimental and expanse" with mid-00s

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

indie's "grandeur" that would give way to the emo revival. In 2021, ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

''s Adam Feibel wrote that the album had "frequently been held up as

he band's He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

crowning achievement".

Accolades

Track listing

Personnel

The lineup for this album is: * David Bello - vocals * Nicole Shanholtzer - guitar, vocals * Josh Cyr - bass guitar, acoustic guitar * Katie Dvorak - synthesizer, vocals * Steven Buttery - percussion * Chris Teti - production, engineering, mixing, guitar, vocals, percussion * Nick Kwas - violin * Tyler Bussey - guitar, banjo, vocals * Greg Horbal - guitar

References

{{Wikiquote 2015 albums The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die albums Epitaph Records albums