by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Sometimes the greatest obstacle in entertainment is setting expectations to high. It happens all the time... a highly anticipated album, movie, or TV show... we've all fell victim to disappointment because we expected the impossible. Sometimes however those expectations are met and exceeded, creating something spectacular in its wake, which brings us to Providence's Beverly Tender and their upcoming album. Its been two years since the duo released the exceptional Lord Mayor Makes 1,000 Speeches (set for reissue this October), a record that introduced the pair to the larger DIY community from the East Coast to the West.
Expectations for their follow up are high, and well... Beverly Tender have come out swinging. What Have You Done To My Water?, the band's upcoming full length (out November 10th via Disposable America) is something like "love at first listen." The band's warm and textured songs are tangled, bent, and contorted; pushed to their breaking point and then peeling just ever so slightly back, remaining grounded all the while. The band's honest thoughts and feelings are backed with pure emotional muscle and it's stunning in every regard.
Lead single "Theme From Beverly Blender" is a glorious introduction, a track that bleeds together the band's noise pop, art-rock, and twee senses into an unpredictable swirl, Smiley Q (guitar/vocals) ruminating aloud, "you gotta wonder what it's like to be chill." The framework of the song erupts and sputters, expands and decays, but the hypnotic guitar line never falters; a nervous core for the duo to explore. As the song threatens to devolve into space-age noise like the spun-out child of The Breeders and Sparklehorse, Hastings' cool yet twitchy vocals return and one last question remains, "Will I be like this my whole life? Will I regret this my whole life?"
Beverly Tender's What Have You Done To My Water? is out November 10th via Disposable America and the Lord Mayor Makes 1,000 Speaches reissue is out October 31st. The band plays Hopscotch Music Fest tonight at Neptune's (11 PM) w/ gobbinjr and more.