Photo by Stefano Giovannini
An album is almost never “just an album” but Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are was always going to be something more.
The eight year timeline of its compilation is altogether dizzying and dramatic. Many of the songs were written in the throes of serious illness. The album was recorded in a memorably public and unusual manner. The entire product was nearly lost when a computer malfunctioned. There was a very real danger that this would become the greatest D.C. album that was never released.
Even without all of that, it would have been more than just an album because singer/guitarist/primary songwriter Chad Clark would demand no less of himself as an artist.
“If you’re going to put something out into the world, make sure that it’s thoughtful and it’s felt. It’s something that you know has integrity. I’m not saying that it has to be brilliant, but stand by it and be committed. You only have a short time on the planet. No one knows this more than I do,” he said.
Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are is a fully formed work that makes good on the promise of a dreamier, darker direction with more electronic elements that was teased in 2007 by the single “Ann the Word.”
Before the band’s period of inactivity brought on by Clark’s open heart surgery and viral cardiomyopathy (a dangerous infection of the heart), the band had brought on singer Jean Cook and briefly had Chad Molter (of Medications) triggering samples during their live set. But drummer Devin Ocampo (also of Medications and The Effects) distills the nature of this album more succinctly. “They’re very dense mixes and there’s a lot of ideas musically happening or sonic elements. But I think in essence, they’re just good songs.”
For all of the electronic beats, dizzying drums, and heavily layered songs, the tunes truly are memorable. “Steven and Tiwonge,” an imagined conversation between two real persecuted lovers has a repeating guitar melody that’s both beautiful and melancholy. It’s also a hell of an earworm; it stayed in my head for days after watching Clark mix it back in 2011. “Ain’t a Jury in the World Gon Convict You Baby” is, at its essence, slinky and sly with Clark’s baritone hovering over the symphonic samples and high-pitched guitars. Jean Cook’s return to lead vocals on “Dog With Rabbit In Mouth Unharmed” is another ethereal gem. For all its complexities, when Clark says, “I do want to distill the music. I like things to be as simple as possible,” it’s actually a believable, if seemingly contradictory, statement.
Clark himself is full of contradictions—a fiercely independent artist in spirit that still sees the value in mainstream pop artists like Madonna. He’s friendly and social yet unafraid of confrontation. And during the recording of the album, he both actively rebuffed and paid attention to the reactions of his live studio audience.
While Immersive Ideal, the exhibition that allowed patrons of Artisphere to view Beauty Pill’s recording process through a second floor viewing window did not actively allow viewers to interact with the band, Clark often invited people (including me) into the studio proper. Occasionally, those people got a little too involved in the process for his comfort. “I played [one fan] this thing and that thing and he said, “That thing is better.” I thought, “Okay. I didn’t really ask you that.” I’m not interested in a focus-grouped record. Artists are supposed to lead.” Yet he remembers a time when the audience response was valuable. “I was working on a song and I could feel it was too slow and I could feel it was too slow because it wasn’t working on those people who were over there. So, there is a push and pull kind of thing.”
In that sense, Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are is also a snapshot of the museum itself, which will be closing at the end of June. “I like that we’re going out with a show that’s clearly emblematic of our approach to programming,” said Artisphere’s new media curator Ryan Holladay. “I love that it’s actually a document of this time and this experiment. Not just what Beauty Pill did of this experiment but what we all were a part of for these five years.”
That experiment did not end with allowing visitors a window into their creative process, an experiment that Clark never regretted but told Holladay was “being like animals in a zoo.” Six months later, the band played the completed album in surround sound in the darkened (and emptied) black box theater while allowing visitors to press buttons on a monome, pulling up photos of their recording sessions. It was a big hit with the children at the event but also a way of making the people in the room feel further enveloped and a part of the process. For a man often labeled as reclusive, Clark sure wanted to convey a sense of transparency.
Their performances (all sold out) at Artisphere this weekend is almost a continuation of that surround sound. Bassist Basla Andolsun describes the setup as such, “It’s going to be where each band member has a stage and we’re going to be playing around the perimeter of the room. The audience is going to be in the middle so the audience can create their own mix by going over to the different stages and positioning themselves in the room how they want.” It’s a complex idea, and it’s also going to be one of the final exhibitions at the Rosslyn art museum.
Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are is the work of six musicians and Immersive Ideal is Chad Clark’s creative project. However, it’s also perhaps the greatest success of the short-lived experiment that was Artisphere. Those eleven songs will stand as a document of that years from now when the rest of the artwork has gone.
