The Beths: the band keeping power pop alive
The Beths began, as many great things do, in the jazz department of the University of Auckland. Trumpet player Elizabeth Stokes had her past as a songwriter unearthed by her friends Jonathan Pearce, Benjamin Sinclair, and Ivan Luketina-Johnston. Rather than do what I would do in that situation and immediately flee to Nepal to take up a new life as a goat, she went with the actually brave option. She not only took the songwriting back up but also formed a band with the very people who encouraged her to do so.
Jazz is going through a bit of a moment right now. Many of the indie bands du jour of the past couple of years have technical chops to spare and show those off any way they can, the likes of Black Midi being a perfect example of this. The Beths, however, went in the completely opposite direction. While having all the skills with their instruments a college training can give you, The Beths made music that reflected Stokes’ music upbringing. Upbeat, distorted guitar riffs, the sweetest melodies you’ve ever heard, and the saddest lyrics you’ll ever hear.
That’s sad, not depressing, by the way. It is a very important distinction, considering how funny this band can be with their profound emotional pain. This is, after all, a band whose second album, Jump Rope Chasers, begins with the immortal line, “I’ve never been the dramatic type / but if I don’t see your face tonight / I… well, I guess I’ll be fine.” All this connects them to a fine lineage of sweet, self-effacing power-pop that stretches all the way back to The Kinks’ 1960s heyday, with the likes of The Cars, Superchunk and Hop Along connecting them.
The vast majority of these bands have been cult concerns, though. A strange sentiment as one would assume that melodic guitar pop would be a much more mainstream concern. It is, after all, the thing that made The Beatles international megastars in the first place. There is something fitting about these most introverted bands being cult heroes, though. They’re storytellers, their wry humour not built for enormodomes and streaming superiority. Fortunately, The Beths might be best placed to dream a little bigger.
They’re already headlining outdoor shows in the native New Zealand and have been taken on the road by everyone from Death Cab For Cutie to Weezer. Two bands that Stokes has admitted to idolising as a teenager and a blueprint for how to take personal, idiosyncratic guitar pop into the mainstream. However, in a world obsessed with authenticity and relatability, there is something refreshingly down-to-earth about The Beths.
Something of the whimsy of a bygone era about them. A band whose sense of humour isn’t weaponised into #relatable content on TikTok the way it was for someone like Lewis Capaldi, it manifests as the band playing live shows backed by a six-foot-tall inflatable fish. One that’s given a new name every night by the audience. In a world of people trying desperately to come across as real, The Beths are simply real.
The band are currently winding down the touring for their third album, my 2022 album of the year, Expert In A Dying Field, so when they’ll show up next remains to be seen. However, if you’re new to their work, that gives you ample time to dive into their records and discover a band to truly welcome into your heart.
