The Beautiful Word

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We have a confession to make. While we have no trouble wallowing in ‘The Holy Bible’, ‘The Fragile’, ‘The Bends’ and countless more misery-laden masterpieces (including some not beginning with ‘The’), blissfully upbeat, cheerful, whimsical music can sometimes present us with problems. Whether it’s because happy music is often all too saccharine for our tastes or because our tattered psyche is far more at home with themes of self-disgust and alienation, we’ll let you decide for yourselves- but the point stands. It’s kind of odd then, how much we enjoy watching The Beautiful Word. This self-dubbed ‘Mystery Pop’ outfit make music that’s irrepressibly cheerful, but with a sincerity and charm that makes it palatable... and tonight, to celebrate the release of their latest single, ‘Emily’, they put on one heck of a show.

Before they hit the stage, there are two other interesting acts to get through. Opener Zoe Konez combines poise, fragility and an eye for a tune to impressive effect, her acoustic guitar driven tracks going down tres well with the folks packed into the Brunswick’s cozy live room. It looks like Zoe, and accompanying percussionist Will Connor, could have an interesting future ahead of them. Something that goes equally for London’s The Title Sequence. Utilizing all sorts of technological gubbins that we don’t entirely understand to produce a sound far more spacious than you’d expect from a two-piece, TTS are near-impossible to classify – a collision of all manner of fittingly cinematic atmospherics and some deceptively simple compositions, they take a little while to get your head around, but are definitely worth the effort. Their quirky, almost naive lyrics are plenty endearing too.

After all that, it’s time for The Beautiful Word to hit the stage. We’ve heard great things about this lot from the local press and other clued-up Brightonians, and we’re not disappointed with our first encounter. Rooted in the charming, nuanced songwriting of co-frontpeople (is that a term? It is now) Emily Bryant and Megan Clifton, the five-piece draw from all sorts of sounds and styles to create a winning, multi-faceted and actually rather unique brew. It’s music you can happily dance through the fields to, we imagine, but with enough depth to keep listeners interested, and plenty of variety – it’s not all sweetness and light... just mostly. They’re charming live too, the interplay between Megan, Emily, the rest of the band (Nelson, Jamie, and Scotty, on guitar, drums and bass respectively) and the audience creating a festive, unstrained, enjoyably buoyant atmosphere. With more and more people sitting up and taking notice around the UK it looks like all this lot’s hard work to date is paying dividends... you’d be well advised to keep an eye on their progress. - Subba Cultcha

The party-throwers take to the stage and it’s an ethereal affair as Megan’s vocals lilt and don’t falter. The Beautiful Word is a Christmas bundle of Stars, Psapp and Alisha’s Attic. The strength isn’t mainly in the flourishing vocals, praiseworthy guitar work or the glittery percussion; it’s everything draped out as one and it’s molto buono. The Christmassy vibe is maintained and certain songs are suited to fit accordingly. After spending the last four months in Iceland it is both surreal and welcoming to bear the similarities between The Beautiful Word and Icelandic bands like Hjaltalín and <3 Svanhvít! The glock and guitar, combined with Megan and Emily’s vocal rapport suggest that Christmas has indeed come early and to that we say cheers and seasons greetings!

Marcus Walsh

- www.brightonculture.co.uk