Little Beards usher in the End of Times on their forthcoming self-released album, The Legend of Spectacular Living due out September 24th. We last heard from the synth duo of Nan and Sean Kirkpatrick (Nervous Curtains) in 2017 when the pair released their Midnight in the Garden of Chaotic Neutral album, using a sleek and minimalist form of synth-pop to explore the air-conditioned nightmare of mid-century America. On The Legend of Spectacular Living, we jet forward thirty years as the duo soundtrack the end of the Empire through the lens of The Sopranos. A darkwave world of lush melody and danceable beats where power always equals violence in equal measures of nostalgia and cynicism, here memories of a Golden Age fade into the legends of a spectacular past.
“What’s The Point (It’s Funny)” is our first listen-in on the upcoming release. Animated by muscular basslines that seem to leer and prowl, the song’s title suggests this is a place where lecherous appetites and callow humor abide. With percussion and low-end combining into a hypnotic swirl, Nan Kirkpatrick’s vocals enter to add a haunted mood. Siren-like, they rise above the bass and drums in veiled peels of dark smoke, trading melodic interplay with padded swells that bleat in lament. While the rest might be enjoying a last nervous chuckle as the Empire burns, Little Beards don’t seem to find the joke all that funny.
