On The Beths’ new album Expert In A Dying Field, Elizabeth Stokes’ songwriting positions her somewhere between being a novelist and a documentarian. The songs collected here are autobiographical, but they’re also character sketches of relationships and more importantly, their aftermaths. The question that hangs in the air: what do you do with how intimately versed you’ve become in a person, once they’re gone from your life? The third LP from the New Zealand quartet houses 12 jewels of tight, guitar-heavy songs that worm their way into your head, an incandescent collision of power-pop and skuzz. The album’s title track “Expert In A Dying Field†introduces the thesis for the record: “How does it feel to be an expert in a dying field? How do you know it’s over when you can’t let go?†Stokes asks. “Love is learned over time ‘til you’re an expert in a dying field.†1 Expert In A Dying Field 2 Knees Deep 3 Silence Is Golden 4 Your Side 5 I Want To Listen 6 Head In The Clouds 7 Best Left 8 Change In The Weather 9 When You Know You Know 10 A Passing Rain 11 I Told You That I Was Afraid 12 2am
