Album Review: No Beauty – No Beauty Will Remain
I will be honest. When I first read the band name No Beauty, I had a feeling in my gut: despite the title, the music I am going to hear is going to be filled with beauty, love and care. And I was not mistaken.
The band that came into life after an unexpected meeting of two minds and hearts at a friend's birthday party knows a thing or two about writing beautiful tunes and adorning them with beautiful arrangements. Let's listen to their debut EP No Beauty Will Remain together.
The album starts with so do i. A simple groove, warm acoustic guitar and transparent keyboard touches create a warm and cozy feeling, like you are jamming with friends in a small room in a country house with a fireplace burning and a dog sleeping at your feet. But then reverberated guitars fall from the sky like asteroids, and the sonic universe expands. This change in sound and mood happens very quickly, and before we make ourselves at home in new surroundings, the next song starts.
It's called JUNE. And it feels like summer. It's a rush. It's everything at once. It's overwhelming like summer heat and like all the gifts that nature has been saving for us to feast on when june finally comes. It's like falling in love head over heels. No Beauty's singer Helena Alexandria knows this feeling, she is like summer herself when she sings "i'm saving something for you" like she's been holding back forever and now is finally the time to let go.
The next piece is called Hourglass and it releases the tension a bit. The track's two most striking elements are probably its cheerful groove and highly emotional vocals.
pharmacy starts with some eerie textures and crisp drums, with some warmth added later by an acoustic guitar. The song's vocal melody is beautiful and insanely catchy, and the heavy use of reverberation helps the band create a dreamy, fairy-tale-like world where you can casually meet devil at a pharmacy or even in your love interest's bedroom.
Alexandria Ottoline Endelion is built around a heavy, viscous groove. The guitars are thick like black oil and the drums are stomping like elephants in musth.
taking off my clothes is marked by beautifully raw vocals and meditative guitars and drums. The song has its climactic moments, but those are quiet storms that never disturb the song's calmness, even when all the instruments start playing random sequences, bursting into chaos.
You Died with its imaginative groove and slowly unfolding vocal melodies brings to mind the best songs by Big Thief.
Black Dog Shadow that closes the journey boasts probably the catchiest, most instantly memorable melody on the album. The tune has a traditional, almost ancient quality, and is sung like a funeral cry.
Overall, No Beauty Will Remain is a rich, layered album with lots emotional twists and turns, poetic discoveries and brilliant production ideas. The record will appeal to fans of Marika Hackman and Big Thief and to all hungry listeners seeking beauty, love and sincerity in music.
The band that came into life after an unexpected meeting of two minds and hearts at a friend's birthday party knows a thing or two about writing beautiful tunes and adorning them with beautiful arrangements. Let's listen to their debut EP No Beauty Will Remain together.
The album starts with so do i. A simple groove, warm acoustic guitar and transparent keyboard touches create a warm and cozy feeling, like you are jamming with friends in a small room in a country house with a fireplace burning and a dog sleeping at your feet. But then reverberated guitars fall from the sky like asteroids, and the sonic universe expands. This change in sound and mood happens very quickly, and before we make ourselves at home in new surroundings, the next song starts.
It's called JUNE. And it feels like summer. It's a rush. It's everything at once. It's overwhelming like summer heat and like all the gifts that nature has been saving for us to feast on when june finally comes. It's like falling in love head over heels. No Beauty's singer Helena Alexandria knows this feeling, she is like summer herself when she sings "i'm saving something for you" like she's been holding back forever and now is finally the time to let go.
The next piece is called Hourglass and it releases the tension a bit. The track's two most striking elements are probably its cheerful groove and highly emotional vocals.
pharmacy starts with some eerie textures and crisp drums, with some warmth added later by an acoustic guitar. The song's vocal melody is beautiful and insanely catchy, and the heavy use of reverberation helps the band create a dreamy, fairy-tale-like world where you can casually meet devil at a pharmacy or even in your love interest's bedroom.
Alexandria Ottoline Endelion is built around a heavy, viscous groove. The guitars are thick like black oil and the drums are stomping like elephants in musth.
taking off my clothes is marked by beautifully raw vocals and meditative guitars and drums. The song has its climactic moments, but those are quiet storms that never disturb the song's calmness, even when all the instruments start playing random sequences, bursting into chaos.
You Died with its imaginative groove and slowly unfolding vocal melodies brings to mind the best songs by Big Thief.
Black Dog Shadow that closes the journey boasts probably the catchiest, most instantly memorable melody on the album. The tune has a traditional, almost ancient quality, and is sung like a funeral cry.
Overall, No Beauty Will Remain is a rich, layered album with lots emotional twists and turns, poetic discoveries and brilliant production ideas. The record will appeal to fans of Marika Hackman and Big Thief and to all hungry listeners seeking beauty, love and sincerity in music.