Review by Alex Dye

The World is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die (hereafter, TWIABP) emerged out of the emo-revival of the 2010’s alongside of other notable acts like The Hotelier, Tiny Moving Parts, and Modern Baseball. Whereas many of their colleagues have stopped making music in the last couple of years, TWIABP have continued to consistently put out albums, and with each subsequent record further evolving their identity as a band and pushing the boundaries of their genre. TWIABP is a hard band to pin down, both in terms of style and personality. For a band who wrote serious music and introspective lyrics, they did not seem to ever take themselves very seriously. I know I have at least one piece of merch that says “The World is a Beautiful Cat and I am No Longer Afraid to Meow Meow Meow.” Their social media presence, at least in between the release of Harmlessness and Always Foreign, became a regular repository for trolling and shit-posting. During that time they cancelled several festival appearances and parted ways with a founding member under somewhat mysterious circumstances. They then maintained radio silence for a time, eventually reappearing rebranded and ready to reflect the more somber nature of their musical identity. 

Their newest outing, Illusory Walls, finds the band again evolving in their sound, almost to the realm of progressive rock (prog-emo, if there can be such a thing). It is their heaviest record to date, with the distorted tones of their guitars and overlaid arpeggios being much more aggressive than anything they’ve released before. Of course, we still get a lot of what we’ve come to expect and appreciate about a TWIABP album, including dueling vocals between David Bello and Katie Dvorak. The male/female vocal dynamic is perhaps one of their most intriguing elements. Because of the pandemic the album was recorded over a year in time, longer than any previous recording sessions. In some ways this was a blessing in disguise, as Dvorak was able to recover from a vocal injury that under normal circumstances would have kept her from lending voice to the album. 

Stylistically, they bridge out into different arenas that seek to imitate but not ape other rock bands. There is a dynamism to the musical shifts between songs that can at times be jarring but are also interesting enough to continue to engage the listener throughout the record’s extravagant 70-minute runtime. Where “Afraid to Die” aspires for Coheed and Cambria levels of prog-rock, “Queen Sophie for President” sounds like the best New Order song you’ve never heard, straight out of the 80’s Madchester club scene. And the string section overlayed on the ending of “Died in the Prison of the Holy Office” smacks of Led Zepplin’s most orchestral moments. But lest it sound like the new album is a jukebox homage to their favorite rock bands, Illusory Walls is most definitely a TWIABP album and the next step in maturing towards who they are becoming as a band. 

This ambitious record is capped off by a sequence of two songs of somewhat excessive length. With “Infinite Josh” (15:39) followed by “Fewer Afraid” (19:44), the combined runtime of the two tracks is as long or longer than the length of any of their first three albums. 

“Fewer Afraid,” which explores scenes of mirth and tragedy, ends with the refrain:
“The world is a beautiful place, but we have to make it that way / Whenever you find home, we’ll make it more than just a shelter / If everyone belongs there, it will hold us all together / If you’re afraid to die, then so am I.”

This is a callback to their song “Getting Sodas” from Whenever, If Ever and serves as an echoing commitment to the hopeful outlook at the end of that album. To be able to come full emotional circle to a project released 8 years ago, in spite of everything that has happened between then and now still be able to sing “The world is a beautiful place,” is a miracle in and of itself. But that is the mission of TWIAPB—a band that musically and lyrically explores the darkness of life while at the same time drawing the listener towards the glimmer of hope that can be found on the horizon, even if that glimmer is only slight.

You can listen to Illusory Walls on all streaming platforms and check out the band at theworldisabeautifulplace.com and on Instagram and Facebook. TWIABP is currently on tour, coming to a city near you through the end of November.