THE COAST IS NEVER CLEAR
Beulah


Blisters in the sun. Where Divine Comedy aims for lush, Beulah's horn section is all sunshine and bouncing off tanned boys and girls. The surface is infectious pop, with overlapping hooks and choruses that hug and don't let go. Miles Kurosky's words are something else: There is a place in the red light district / Of your heart that I used to visit. Fucking beautiful. Somewhere in the middle of the album is one of the best songs ever written. "Gravity is Bringing Us Down" opens with electronic bleeping before launching into a slide-guitar riff and a murmuring Kurosky. The song swells as the mood crashes: We're getting high / But we're still feeling down / Gravity has a way of pinning us to the ground. The tempo picks up, a swell of acidic bubbles. It's cheery and eerie at the same time. "I'm soft, but I'll be alright / Lonely... I'm just / Lonely over and over. And over. ****