{"product_id":"greg-mendez-beauty-land-black-lp","title":"Greg Mendez - Beauty Land Black LP","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDOC373LP\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGreg Mendez has always been an economical songwriter – he wields restraint and simplicity as tools, the core of his songs sharpened into simple, cutting truths. On \u003cem\u003eBeauty Land\u003c\/em\u003e, his new album and debut LP for Dead Oceans, we’re guided by a wry but forgiving narrator, an underdog who has learned to balance cynicism and faith. These songs are self-effacing without self-pity, carefully constructed altars of imperfection channeled through pop melodies, shimmering but urgent guitars, and a voice that reaches for choir boy innocence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe bulk of \u003cem\u003eBeauty Land \u003c\/em\u003ewas recorded directly to tape, almost entirely alone in Mendez’s makeshift home studio in Philadelphia - a small room with no natural light. It’s his first full length since his unexpected self-titled breakthrough in 2023, which was a slow burn success following 15 years of writing and recording music in relative obscurity between Philly and New York. \u003cem\u003eBeauty Land\u003c\/em\u003e picks up where we left off three years ago – plumbing the depths of grief, love, and addiction – but its intense, quiet clarity shows Mendez at his songwriting best.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eParts of \u003cem\u003eBeauty Land\u003c\/em\u003e feel like a lucid dream, dented characters carve their way through a world that’s cartoonish and warped – the broken-clock march of “I Wanna Feel Pretty,” the chiming toy piano on “Gentle Love.” “Mary \/ Dreaming” begins as a sparse, finger-picked lament before cutting abruptly to a deflated, Beach-Boys-but-make-it-fucked-up resolution that brings both melancholy and joy; a sense that all things can be true at once. None of the 14 tracks here break three minutes, but they tell stories that span lifetimes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDeath floats through the record, whether it appears as a memory or a threat. Everything feels precarious. There’s a fragility to how these songs are built: the way the funeral organ hits alongside the morphine on “Looking Out Your Window,” the devastating simplicity of “Frog,” with its slowed-down keyboard and bare refrain: “Please forgive me for my faults.” \u003cem\u003eBeauty Land\u003c\/em\u003e feels, at times, impossibly lonely. Which makes it really count when it doesn’t – like when Mendez sings in harmony with his wife and bandmate, Veronica near the end of “So Mean” and it feels like a cherished reunion, a fleeting moment of redemption, a temporary parting of the seas.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dead Oceans","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":62183603437955,"sku":null,"price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/9379\/2669\/files\/gregmendez.webp?v=1785145827","url":"https:\/\/bellaunionvinylshop.com\/products\/greg-mendez-beauty-land-black-lp","provider":"Bella Union Vinyl Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}