I’m pretty confident many of us would give anything to feel the high of summer 2019 all over again.
For myself and Ali that looked like long drives in her white Jeep Wrangler, following the electric energy and buzz of tour after tour. We’d spend our days racing against the sun as the sticky macadam raced underneath us, making it to venues at nightfall. We saw the inside of green rooms for interviews and then were jammed into spaces packed wall to wall with energized fans, eager to see their idols grace the stage in front of them. When we weren’t on the road, we were exploring New York City, happy to be alive and traversing the streets so many sought to walk. Those rare moments between tours were our rest, but they also felt too empty because in the summer concerts were our home.
Photo Credit: Ali Fitzgerald, @alfitzpics
The summer of 2019 gave us an album, too, to play as the soundtrack of our many highs and lows of touring and late nights alike. In the Jeep, we blasted Chase Atlantic’s PHASES on repeat. We let each song take its own unique meaning to our life, but when we landed ourselves at their tour later that year, we realized we weren’t alone in feeling wrapped up by their music. Their fans had each taken that album and felt it so deeply, so personally that it became an album of and for the individualized experience. What is it about this band’s music that feels so easy to become a soundtrack to anyone, anywhere?
Oh, to be nostalgic of something that was less than two years ago, but feels much longer.
Thank God, they’ve released a new album, BEAUTY IN DEATH, which is deeply reminiscent of the artistic choices of PHASES yet something entirely new. Chase Atlantic hasn’t shied away from their past trademark hypnotic, almost hyperpop element, but instead embraced it and undercut it with freshly explored rock elements.
Photo Credit: Ali Fitzgerald, @alfitzpics
Think of BEAUTY IN DEATH as less of an album and more of an exploration. Similar to PHASES this album demands to be played in its entirety, eliciting a new response with every song, with every verse, with every key change. BEAUTY IN DEATH meets you where you are and takes you with it.
Imagine a smokey, hazy room, lit dimly and sparsely with busted lamps. There’s a party happening somewhere but feels almost too distant to reach. Instead, you’re submerged in this dizzying music, ungrounded. That’s what it’s like closing your eyes and blasting this album. By the end of the last song, you find your way back and to the crowd, open your eyes, and know that you are suddenly deeply connected to this work that can only really be described as a work of true art.
Chase Atlantic isn’t for everyone, that’s for sure. It would be a disservice to the band to try to say that anyone can fall in love with their music. The trio isn’t secretive about the fact that they make truly alternative music. What’s really so iconic about the alternative genre is there is no one way to do it. Chase Atlantic makes music for people who don’t feel seen by the mainstream, but aren’t necessarily unfamiliar or afraid of feeling lost, rather they embrace it.
To fall in love with Chase Atlantic’s sound is a reckoning that not all mainstream is “bad”, either and that elements like trap, pop, or trope-like overproduction can actually create something that leans so far into a certain sound that it becomes its own entity entirely.
Among the dizzying confusion of BEAUTY IN DEATH, there seems to be so much going on, yet somehow finally space to take a deep breath, a slow step back, and just be. Chase Atlantic does what Twenty One Pilots had hoped to do.
But now what you want to know: is this album worth your time? Truthfully, if you fall into that niche, that demographic, that just seems to thrive off of this music then yes. If you haven’t checked out Chase Atlantic yet, you may have just found your new favorite obsession. However, if generic pop or, on the other side of things, startling metalcore is your cup of tea — you likely won’t find solace in this album. That’s a good thing, too. The moment Chase Atlantic decides to sell out and make music for the masses is the moment we lose an innovative band and it is a day I hope never comes.
Photo Credit: Ali Fitzgerald, @alfitzpics
While not everyone will like this album, those who do will find themselves deeply engrossed in it. Being a casual listener of Chase Atlantic feels extraordinarily rare. You’re either all in or all out and I am all in on this album.
However, the one word of caution I do have is the fear of falling into what I have coined as The 1975 Trap. On the one hand, I appreciate the similar stylistic choices to PHASES and feeling comfortable on that one trademark sound can be great for a band and their followers — like The 1975. However, I’d also urge Chase Atlantic to be mindful of falling into a trap where they can only create this one song with slightly different twists. While I’m no advocate for every band being like Panic! At the Disco and changing their genre every 30 seconds, I would love to see Chase Atlantic grow from BEAUTY IN DEATH in whatever project finds them next. Perhaps because their entire sound feels experimental, the concept of experimenting even more can feel too far away, but I do think it may help to create something groundbreaking.
Photo Credit: Ali Fitzgerald, @alfitzpics
Nonetheless, this album is beautifully fabricated, which is just not surprising for an album entitled BEAUTY IN DEATH. Songs like “ALEYUH” provide a modern, edgy sensation and “PLEASE STAND BY” which features De’Wayne Jackson and Xavier Mayne, breaks up that romanticized sounds with an energy of dancing and freedom instead.
However, without a doubt, the best song on the album is it’s namesake “BEAUTY IN DEATH”, with over four minutes of expansive and sensationalized beats. The song leads listeners through a gradual rise and fall, mesmerizing them with every beat. From the vocals to the instrumentals, this song has not a single fault. “Tell me, what’s the point in living?” the lyrics call out.
Maybe the point of living is those moments you find soundtracked by Chase Atlantic. Just you, your best friends, seemingly endless summer nights, and a dangerous romanticization that you fall prey to, despite knowing the consequences. The point in living is music, love, fear, and this wild journey, all of which is wrapped into Chase Atlantic’s BEAUTY IN DEATH.
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