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Jump Rope Gazers

by The Beths

supported by
theUtmost
theUtmost thumbnail
theUtmost This might be the tightest "indie garage pop-tending-rock" album I know of.
Arrangements are top notch.
Correcting a glaring omission in my collection here by buying the Beths albums while it's still _just_ NZ Music Month!
What an opening track!
Jump Rope Gazers and Don't Go Away - instrumentation is outstanding on both tracks - tough choice, any one makes for a worthy choice as fave track. Favorite track: I'm Not Getting Excited.
Jack Kitzerow
Jack Kitzerow thumbnail
Jack Kitzerow Great opening track, stays great the whole time. There's seriously not a dud on here. From the high energy opening track to the crazy guitar effects on Acrid to the beautiful closing tracks, it's a certified banger! Favorite track: You Are a Beam of Light.
devronmarts
devronmarts thumbnail
devronmarts A sweet sounding album with an even sweeter self-description; simple, effective, good. Favorite track: Out of Sight.
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Acrid 04:06
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Out of Sight 03:39
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about

Everything changed for The Beths when they released their debut album, Future Me Hates Me, in 2018. The indie rock band had long been nurtured within Auckland, New Zealand’s tight-knit music scene, working full-time during the day and playing music with friends after hours. Full of uptempo pop rock songs with bright, indelible hooks, the LP garnered them critical acclaim from outlets like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, and they set out for their first string of shows overseas. They quit their jobs, said goodbye to their hometown, and devoted themselves entirely to performing across North America and Europe. They found themselves playing to crowds of devoted fans and opening for acts like Pixies and Death Cab for Cutie. Almost instantly, The Beths turned from a passion project into a full-time career in music.

Songwriter and lead vocalist Elizabeth Stokes worked on what would become The Beths’ second LP, Jump Rope Gazers, in between these intense periods of touring. Like the group’s earlier music, the album tackles themes of anxiety and self-doubt with effervescent power pop choruses and rousing backup vocals, zeroing in on the communality and catharsis that can come from sharing stressful situations with some of your best friends. Stokes’s writing on Jump Rope Gazers grapples with the uneasy proposition of leaving everything and everyone you know behind on another continent, chasing your dreams while struggling to stay close with loved ones back home.

"If you're at a certain age, all your friends scatter to the four winds,” Stokes says. “We did 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 time.”

With songs like the rambunctious “Dying To Believe” and the tender, shoegazey “Out of Sight,” The Beths reckon with the distance that life necessarily drives between people over time. People who love each other inevitably fail each other. “I’m sorry for the way that I can’t hold conversations/They’re such a fragile thing to try to support the weight of,” Stokes sings on “Dying to Believe.” The best way to repair that failure, in The Beths’ view, is with abundant and unconditional love, no matter how far it has to travel. On “Out of Sight,” she pledges devotion to a dearly missed friend: “If your world collapses/I’ll be down in the rubble/I’d build you another,” she sings.

“It was a rough year in general, and I found myself saying the words, 'wish you were here, wish I was there,’ over and over again,” she says of the time period in which the album was written. Touring far from home, The Beths committed themselves to taking care of each other as they were trying at the same time to take care of friends living thousands of miles away. They encouraged each other to communicate whenever things got hard, and to pay forward acts of kindness whenever they could. That care and attention shines through on Jump Rope Gazers, where the quartet sounds more locked in than ever. Their most emotive and heartfelt work to date, Jump Rope Gazers stares down all the hard parts of living in communion with other people, even at a distance, while celebrating the ferocious joy that makes it all worth it--a sentiment we need now more than ever.

credits

released July 10, 2020

The Beths
Guitar: Elizabeth Stokes, Jonathan Pearce
Bass Guitar: Benjamin Sinclair
Drums: Tristan Deck
Vocals, Percussion: All

‘Jump Rope Gazers’ was recorded in Jonathan Pearce’s studio in Auckland, NZ between November 2019 and February 2020
All songs written by Elizabeth Stokes
Arranged by The Beths
Production, Mixing and Engineering by Jonathan Pearce
Additional Vocal Engineering and Production by Elizabeth Stokes
Additional Production on Track 1 by Benjamin Locke
Safety Announcements on Track 2 by Rose Matafeo
Additional Mixing by Bevan Smith
Mastering by Larry Killip


Cover artwork: Philippa Emery
Cover design: Kyle Ranudo
Liner photography: Amanda Cheng


A huge thank you to all our friends and families
To Katie Everingham, Chris Pearce and Adam Tobeck
To Marsha Permadhi
To Jake Snell, Apple Bagios, Todd Hyman, Steph Salas, Alec Moss, Katie Cheyne, Beth Townsend, Andy Moss, Josh Clarke, Tommy Hudson, Brian Swanson, Chris Palmer, Joren Huevels, Casey O’Shaughnessy, Anthony Metcalf and Nath Wood
To David Parker, Dave Rowlands, Dave Dobbyn, Alistair Deverick, Alex Freer, Paddy Hill and The Finns, Bob Frisbee, Oliver Devlin and Callum Passells
To everyone who has come to a show or listened to our music
To everyone who helped us, hosted us and fed us

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The Beths Auckland, New Zealand

'Expert In A Dying Field' (Deluxe) out September 15. Preorder now: thebeths.lnk.to/thebethsdeluxe

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