Vinyl love: The Beths “Jump rope gazers”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: The Beths
Album Title: Jump rope gazers
Year released: 2020
Details: tangerine vinyl, included foldout “takahe” poster

The skinny: Ever since I saw Auckland New Zealand’s The Beths blow the proverbial doors off the stage at 2019’s Bluesfest, I’ve been spinning their debut constantly, to the point where I’m sure even my turntable was looking forward to new material from the band. The announcement of the impending followup came last spring and I immediately jumped on their American label, Carpark Record’s website to get the pre-order done. I must’ve been one of the quicker draws because when it was finally delivered a few months later, it arrived with a limited edition foldout poster tucked in with it. Just one more bonus to add to the bright tangerine colour of the vinyl pressing and the fun and energetic music within. “Jump rope gazers” wasn’t the immediate doe-eyed crush that “Future me hates me” was but it grew on me to the point where it landed at the number seven spot on my top ten albums of the year list. Good, good fun.

Standout track: “I’m not getting excited”