Pain Is Beauty

Pain Is Beauty
Studio album by Chelsea Wolfe
Released September 3, 2013
Genre Indie rock, electronic, downtempo, folk, blues, goth, neo-psychedelia
Length 54:53
Label Sargent House
Producer Chelsea Wolfe, Ben Chisholm
Chelsea Wolfe chronology

Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs
(2012)		 Pain Is Beauty
(2013)
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 82/100[1]
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [2]
Consequence of Sound [3]
The New York Times favorable[4]
Pitchfork 8.0/10[5]
Sputnikmusic 3.5/5[6]

Pain Is Beauty is the fourth studio album from American singer-songwriter and eponymous band, Chelsea Wolfe released on September 3, 2013 in CD, vinyl, and digital download formats through Sargent House.[2][7]

Theme

Thematically, Pain Is Beauty is said to be largely about idealistic love.[8] Though Wolfe has also stated "It’s not a conceptual album. There’s a lot of different things it’s about: it’s about ancestry, it’s about nature, it’s about tormented love and sort of overcoming the odds. There’s a lot of different themes on this album."[9] According to Wolfe, the red dress she is wearing on the album cover represents volcanic lava.[8] Regarding the album title, Wolfe shared, "...there’s always gonna be situations that we go through that are really hard and we just have to kind of be strong, and if we get through to the other side, then we become wiser people and our lives become more beautiful."[9]

Reception

The aggregate review site Metacritic assigned an average score of 82 to the album based on 17 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[1]

In a positive review by Nate Chinen of The New York Times, the reviewer commented on the album's tone remarking, "...the attractive but suffocating atmosphere on Pain Is Beauty should be understood as precise aesthetic calculation", also stating, "Pain Is Beauty, her fourth album in three years, confirms her steadiness as a singer-songwriter of gothic intention, drawn to romantic fatalism and beautiful ruin."[4] Comparing the album to previous records, Heather Phares of Allmusic expressed, "Wolfe opts for a fuller-fledged sound than she did on Unknown Rooms in a more tempered and eclectic way than Apokalypsis delivered", explaining, "With the help of Ben Chisholm and her other collaborators, she's free to go in virtually any direction she chooses, and she ends up choosing quite a few."[2]

Several reviews have critiqued the album's cohesiveness; as Angel of Sputnikmusic notes, "While it's possible Pain Is Beauty would have benefited from some more time spent songwriting and fleshing out the overall direction of the album's sound, there's still more than enough impressive songs to make this a worthy addition to the Chelsea Wolfe catalog".[6]

Track listing

No. Title Length
1. "Feral Love"   3:22
2. "We Hit a Wall"   3:36
3. "House of Metal"   5:00
4. "The Warden"   3:53
5. "Destruction Makes the World Burn Brighter"   2:38
6. "Sick"   5:35
7. "Kings"   3:59
8. "Reins"   5:15
9. "Ancestors, the Ancients"   4:35
10. "They'll Clap When You're Gone"   5:52
11. "The Waves Have Come"   8:29
12. "Lone"   2:37
Total length:
 54:53

Personnel

Pain Is Beauty album personnel adapted from Allmusic.[2]

Charts

Chart Peak
position
Billboard Heatseeker Albums[10] 22
Billboard Folk Albums[10] 25

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Pain Is Beauty Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Heather Phares. "Pain Is Beauty - Chelsea Wolfe Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". Allmusic. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
  3. ↑ Manning, Erin (Sep 6, 2013). "Album Review: chelsea-wolfe-pain-is-beauty". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved Sep 6, 2013.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Nate Chinen (September 2, 2013). "Albums From Neko Case, Ariana Grande, Gorguts and Chelsea Wolfe". The New York Times. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
  5. ↑ Jenn Pelly (September 6, 2013). "Chelsea Wolfe: Pain Is Beauty". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 14, 2013.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Angel (August 27, 2013). "Album Review - Chelsea Wolfe: Pain Is Beauty". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved August 27, 2013.
  7. ↑ Chris Coplan (June 5, 2013). "Chelsea Wolfe announces new album, Pain Is Beauty". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Cristina Black (August 29, 2013). "The Drama of Chelsea Wolfe". LA Weekly. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Emilie Friedlander (September 4, 2013). "Interview: Chelsea Wolfe". The Fader. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Pain Is Beauty - Chelsea Wolfe Billboard. Retrieved September 26, 2013.

External links

Official website