''Pain Is Beauty'' is the third studio album from American singer-songwriter and eponymous band,

Chelsea Wolfe Chelsea Joy Wolfe (born November 14, 1983) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Her work has blended elements of gothic rock, doom metal, and folk music. Raised in Northern California with a country musician father, Wolfe began writin ...

released on September 3, 2013, through

Sargent House Sargent House is an American management company and record label based in Los Angeles. It was founded in June 2006 by Cathy Pellow, who is a music video commissioner for Atlantic Records and also owns a music video production company called Ref ...

Theme

Thematically, ''Pain Is Beauty'' is said to be largely about idealistic love. Though Wolfe has also stated "It’s not a conceptual album. There’s a lot of different things it’s about: it’s about ancestry, it’s about nature, it’s about tormented love and sort of overcoming the odds. There’s a lot of different themes on this album." According to Wolfe, the red dress she is wearing on the album cover represents volcanic lava. Regarding the album title, Wolfe admitted, "...there's always gonna be situations that we go through that are really hard and we just have to kind of be strong, and if we get through to the other side, then we become wiser people and our lives become more beautiful."

Style

Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...

'' described the album's "addition of synths and sequenced beats create an expansive hybrid of her past three albums." The website also noted "distinctive strokes of seductive goth rock, psych folk, and post-punk"

Reception

''Pain Is Beauty'' was well-received by

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

upon its initial release. The aggregate review site

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assigned an average score of 82 to the album based on 17 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". In a positive review by Nate Chinen of ''

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'', the reviewer commented on the album's tone remarking, "...the attractive but suffocating atmosphere on ''Pain Is Beauty'' should be understood as precise aesthetic calculation", also stating, "''Pain Is Beauty,'' her fourth album in three years, confirms her steadiness as a singer-songwriter of gothic intention, drawn to romantic fatalism and beautiful ruin." Comparing the album to previous records, Heather Phares of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

expressed, "Wolfe opts for a fuller-fledged sound than she did on '' Unknown Rooms'' in a more tempered and eclectic way than '' Apokalypsis'' delivered", explaining, "With the help of Ben Chisholm and her other collaborators, she's free to go in virtually any direction she chooses, and she ends up choosing quite a few." In the review for ''

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'', Jenn Pelly stated that "Wolfe's songs of Pain emphasize massive builds with engulfing power in the vein of Swans. It's emotionally exhausting in equally mad and enjoyable ways, lasting nearly an hour across 12 twilight tracks of aggressive crescendos, poised reprieves, and suspended drama. The slower her metamorphosis, the heavier and more cavernous." Several reviews have critiqued the album's cohesiveness; as Angel of

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notes, "While it's possible ''Pain Is Beauty'' would have benefited from some more time spent songwriting and fleshing out the overall direction of the album's sound, there's still more than enough impressive songs to make this a worthy addition to the Chelsea Wolfe catalog".

Track listing

Personnel

''Pain Is Beauty'' album personnel adapted from

. *Andrea Calderon – violin *Anna Dobos –

cover photo Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper ( tabloid), comic book, video game (box art), music album (album art ...

*Ben Chisholm – bass,

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

, mixing, production, programming, synthesizer *

– composer, engineer, guitar, mixing, producer, vocals *Chris Common – mixing *Dylan Fuijoka – drums *Ezra Buchla –

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

*Kevin Dockter – guitars *Kristin Cofer – band photo, photography *Patrick Shiroishi – baritone clarinet, saxophone *Trevor Hernandez –

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

Theme

Style

Reception

Track listing

Personnel

Charts

References

External links