Deemed critical atrocities against punk and intellectual hardcore aesthetics by your favorite gatekeepers of cool at the time of their release, the rebirth of Beauty Pill’s Dischord-era releases coupled with unearthed treasures as Blue Period is deserved karma against its initial naysayers. The art created during this Picasso period in the life of the D.C. band led by Chad Clark (then joined by vocalist Rachel Burke, guitarist Drew Doucette, bassist Basla Andolsun, and drummer Ryan Nelson) is the definition of an essential re-discovery (or, even more envious to those who may be discovering it for the first time…) as the compilation resonates decades later as one of independent rock music’s most forward-thinking endeavors, many years ahead of its time.

Within the remastered listens of The Unsustainable Lifestyle and You Are Right To Be Afraid EP are the blueprints etched by an artist challenging the norms within the scene through a collective reactive “softness” in their sociopolitical loudness by sculpting in varying voices and more pronounced dark humor through non-linear patterns and rhythm, nuanced in definition. It wasn’t the knotted-up bursts that preceded it, and for that, Beauty Pill were derided, but when you observe how you still see the impressions of their stepping outside the box trailblazing paths for an artist as big as Bartees Strange, it left a longer lasting mark than any review ever could.

Highlights: “Goodnight For Real”, “Drive Down the Cost”, “Fugue State Companion”

Beauty Pill’s Blue Period will be released January 20th on Ernest Jenning Record Co.

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