Rock the Pigeon is delighted to review our favorite tracks from James Beastly’s new album We Should Be Animals. James Beastly is the moniker of San Francisco-based artist Jim Paulos, and this record is a sprawling, psychedelic indie rock journey that pulls you in deep and doesn’t let go. From the chaos of butterflies to the grief of losing a mother, We Should Be Animals is one of the most emotionally honest records we’ve come across in a long time.
“Spring Violets,” the introductory track, is an excellent way to open the record. High in energy, with crunchy guitars and glimmering synthesizers, this song about butterflies leans headfirst into chaos, not fighting it, but accepting it, almost celebrating it. James Beastly’s psychedelic, reverbed vocals feel completely at home in the swirl of sound he’s built around them. You’ll find yourself getting consumed by a stadium-filling drum beat and a locked-in bass line that sits lower in tone than most, booming through your chest and filling you with something you can’t quite name. Then the midsection arrives, and everything slows down. An acoustic guitar emerges, surrounded by insect sounds, and suddenly you’re not just listening to a song, you’re standing in a field, surrounded by butterflies, thinking about transformation, about the beauty of a natural journey from birth to death. A guitar solo closes things out with a tone unlike anything you’ve heard before. “Spring Violets” introduces James Beastly’s out-of-this-world sound and makes a convincing case that you need to hear everything that follows.
James Beastly has said that “love always wins,” and “Fear of Joy” is the song that lives that sentiment. Named after Cherophobia, an actual condition in which an individual has a strong aversion to happiness, this track captures the deeply human quest to find meaning and joy in a world that sometimes makes both feel impossible. It’s about someone wrestling with their own identity, trying to reconcile who they are with what they’re allowed to feel. Tremolo-drenched guitars move through a cool, evolving chord progression, and strings come in to lift the whole thing into something genuinely beautiful and aching. It feels sad. It feels emo. A snappy snare drum manages to keep the energy alive even as the lyrics sink into something more solemn. “Fear of Joy” is the kind of song that sits with you long after it ends.
The title track arrives on a bed of warm, thick acoustic guitars that riff with effortless confidence. “We Should Be Animals” asks a big question: how did we drift so far from the freedom of simply existing? James Beastly puts it plainly: “Animals live in the world as it is, while we slave away to create a world that even we don’t always want to live in, as Brion Gysin said, ‘Man is a bad animal.’” The track is acoustic guitar-driven at its core, but a rocking drum beat keeps it grounded, and as it builds, synths and pianos layer in to create an atmospheric swell that you can genuinely get lost in. The record earns the word “immersive” again and again, and this is one of the moments that seals it.
“Persona Non Grata” is the celebration of being alive that this record needed. An upbeat, kinetic track built around a unique drum beat that chases a complicated, distorted guitar riff through every twist and turn, it somehow manages to give the vocals plenty of room to breathe in spite of how busy the instrumentation gets. James Beastly sings about the truth of his own life, about loving fully and being completely yourself, and the song builds steadily until the guitars are soaring into the heavens and you feel entirely surrounded by the music. This is the one people will be bopping around to at live shows. It’s infectious in the best possible way.
Then comes “Ephemera,” and the record takes its most intimate turn. Written to honor his beloved mother, who passed away last year, this ambient acoustic guitar track leads with emo-leaning chords that set the emotional tone immediately. We feel love. We feel gratitude. We feel immense grief. “Ephemera” celebrates what it means to be held and guided by someone who loves you unconditionally, someone who lifts you toward a better version of yourself. The vocals are delivered in a laid-back, barely-there fashion, like there’s almost no breath left but the grief demands expression anyway. It’s a masterpiece in emotional transmission, the kind of song that doesn’t try to explain loss so much as make you feel it alongside the person who lived it.
We Should Be Animals is a record that rewards full listens and quiet rooms. James Beastly has built something genuinely special here.
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Written by Ryan Cassata
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Rock the Pigeon is an independent music and culture blog dedicated to uplifting emerging artists, spotlighting underrepresented voices, and sharing fresh sounds across genres. Since 2012, we’ve been celebrating creativity, authenticity, and the stories behind the songs.
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