Beauty Pill – You Are Right to be Afraid EP CD

Dischord Records 2003

Though this EP claims to be five songs, the first track is used up with a cutesy fake children’s story, which doesn’t really constitute a “song” in my book. But that’s okay, because the remaining four tracks - all home-studio recorded - provide a short but intriguing taste of what is to come.

Vocal duties are split by founder Chad Clark and newcomer Rachel Burke, but only on the first track do they share leads: a slow-driving song, filled with ephemeral, pure-toned, interlocking guitars, where Chad’s vocals sound plaintive, like the high-register pubescent cracking of Nick Drake, and Joanna’s laid-back innocence evokes a less angry, more sad Liz Phair. Song two is a barnstormer - the only fast track on the EP - filled with sloppy, crackling, almost country-punk guitars, and virtually monotone, too-many-cigarettes vox from Chad, with an intelligent, off-kilter sense of lyrics and tune that evokes defunct San Francisco art-rockers, Engine 88. Songs three and four both are long-building dirges filled with picked guitars, each showcasing the weird and brainy lyrics and breathy vocals of Rachel and Chad, in that order.

My only complaint is that the EP seems to abruptly end just as it’s getting started, with no sense of satisfying finality, leaving me feeling a little jilted and wanting more. Fall of 2003 is supposed to bring their first full-length, The Unsustainable Lifestyle, where I hope that they will match their intelligent and heart-felt songwriting with attention to overall album structure.

- Michael Houghton