The success of Greg Mendez’s self-titled album still feels like an anomaly. He had been creating a signature blend of indie folk since the 2010’s, gaining a small but dedicated following that always included praise from various musicians in satellite genres. When Greg Mendez dropped in 2023, however, he was catapulted into indie stardom with genuine songwriting and a sincerity felt through the adversity of grief, addiction, or simply finding the capacity to put the next step forward.
Luckily for us, the forward momentum continues this year as Beauty Land is set to release this Friday, May 29th, through Dead Oceans. While there’s a new label in town, the lo-fi recording process (in Greg’s own Philadelphia home studio, at that) is still intact, with only a few bells and whistles to heighten the simple charm of the acoustic tracks. I mean bells and whistles literally, as “Gentle Love” features an infectious little whistle melody and a ride bell that marks the shifting tone in “ No Evil”. Simplicity was always key for Mendez, and that quality is still ever present on the new record.
“Beauty Land will leave you wrought for sadness” is quite an understatement if you dig deeper into the lyrics and presence throughout the album’s narrative songwriting. While many consider this a focal quality of the music Mendez makes, it should also be mentioned how comfortable I feel when the music lists off the poorer qualities of oneself. We all navigate our worst feelings on any given day, and the music to me is an exploration of those demons without fully succumbing to self-depracation. On “Frogs”, the lyric “Please forgive me for my faults” can be viewed as an admission of guilt over the flaws one accepts when attempting to grow out of them.
While the lyrics are as poignant and worth further introspection, the music feels as gentle as the summer wind. I love that the tracks are compact and bite-sized vignettes of different themes and ideas. All are presented beautifully and say everything they need without the full weight of a big band or complex song structure behind it. There is so much to dig out of each song, and there are fourteen this time around as well. Overall, the album begs to be listened to more than once to “get” it all, and I love knowing that over time, people will dissect more and more from every listen.
The strange city that Greg Mendez mentions off-handedly throughout his records has led us to label his music “Philamericana”. There’s more fun than sincerity there, but certain passages feel plucked right off the streets of the city of brotherly love. Philadelphia is a strange place indeed, perhaps most notable for David Lynch’s perceptions of it through Eraserhead, or when our football fans pelted snowballs at Santa Claus during a game in December. The city is unfathomably a magnet for some of our more eccentric creatives, both known and underground, and there’s an argument that this little folk project fits in with the crooked crowd as well as the rest.
All in all, there is a ton of beauty to chew on in Beauty Land, with a reminder that the broader our view of the term, the better. Greg Mendez offers more of what he does best, with the right amount of new flares and feats to boot, without ruining the gentle nature and charm he’s most known for. This knotted-up world unfurls a bit when music like this can cut through to the core, and surely enough, Mendez finds a way to break us down all over again.
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