Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

Consumer Guide:
  User's Guide
  Grades 1990-
  Grades 1969-89
  And It Don't Stop
Books:
  Book Reports
  Is It Still Good to Ya?
  Going Into the City
  Consumer Guide: 90s
  Grown Up All Wrong
  Consumer Guide: 80s
  Consumer Guide: 70s
  Any Old Way You Choose It
  Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough
Xgau Sez
Writings:
  And It Don't Stop
  CG Columns
  Rock&Roll& [new]
  Rock&Roll& [old]
  Music Essays
  Music Reviews
  Book Reviews
  NAJP Blog
  Playboy
  Blender
  Rolling Stone
  Billboard
  Video Reviews
  Pazz & Jop
  Recyclables
  Newsprint
  Lists
  Miscellany
Bibliography
NPR
Web Site:
  Home
  Site Map
  Contact
  What's New?
    RSS
Carola Dibbell:
  Carola's Website
  Archive
CG Search:
Google Search:
Twitter:

The Beths

  • Future Me Hates Me [Carpark, 2018] ***
  • Jump Rope Gazers [Yellow Dog, 2020] B+
  • Expert in a Dying Field [Carpark, 2022] A-

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Future Me Hates Me [Carpark, 2018]
No matter how hooky your g-g-b-d pop, no matter how unchauvinistic your female-with-male-support setup, it gives the wrong impression to call your best song "You Wouldn't Like Me" ("You Wouldn't Like Me," "Happy Unhappy") ***

Jump Rope Gazers [Yellow Dog, 2020]
Inflecting her useful tunes, tender heart, and uncertain hopes for the future with a tart, sometimes breathy incipient twang, Elizabeth Stokes and her three male bandmates add a freshness to their all too durable New Zealand jangle-pop. Love and friendship are sometimes hard to distinguish in Stoke's musical world, so to keep things simple and for that matter durable let's hope she and the lead guitarist who's also her boyfriend have found a tie that binds for a while at least. B+

Expert in a Dying Field [Carpark, 2022]
The title track, an extended analogy between a love turned old and an academic career in an obsolescent discipline, could also be said to sum up the formal approach of this New Zealand guitar-guitar-bass-drums tuneful-not-melodic not-quite-power pop. As background music it seems pleasant but plain. The sole singer is Elizabeth Stokes, who also wrote all the songs beyond a single collab with guitarist-producer Jonathan Pearce. But soon you notice that Pearce is some guitarist, and soon after that, when you've found time to give the lyrics the attention they turn out to deserve, you can't wait to hear how the next one will turn out. The title track is dazzling flat-out, a failing relationship in less than 200 meticulously metaphorical words. But the rest are almost as articulate and also less dark: "I cave like I was built to break/You stay like it's a passing rain"; "I want to leave you out there/Waiting in the downpour/Singing that you're sorry/Dripping on the hall floor"; "It's a pain in the heart/Clean the blood from your shirt"; "If you want to whisper/I swear I want to listen"; and in summation "Mixing drinks and messages/It's been quite a year." A-