Expert In A Dying Field

The Beths make emotional wreckage sound like a power-pop victory lap, and here they build an entire record around loving what's already gone.

The title track opens on a question — what do you do with expertise in someone once they've left? — and the band answers by cranking Elizabeth Stokes's guitars until grief moves at running speed. "Silence Is Golden" is the loudest thing on the record, a wall of distortion that argues its opposite, while "Knees Deep" turns the terror of committing to something into a chant you'd shout back at the stage. The stripped acoustic versions and demos stacked at the end pull the curtain back, showing how much sweat goes into making this stuff sound so easy. It's a breakup album that refuses to sulk, and that refusal is exactly what makes it stick.