Like most genres, power-pop comes in many flavors, but my favorite examples of it tend to share the same set of characteristics: punchy guitar riffs, clever vocal harmonies, broad emotional range, and lyrics that either reveal meaningful truths, or tell engaging stories, or both.

New Zealand’s The Beths hit all of these marks on their third album Expert In A Dying Field, whose title suggests another major asset for this listener: that classic Kiwi deadpan. It’s humor served up with generous helpings of self-deprecation, irony, and melancholy, the kind that makes you ponder with a wistful smile.

The opening title track sets the tone, a punchy number that feels a little bit like Courtney Barnett fronting Big Star, a high compliment indeed. Frontwoman/songwriter Elizabeth Stokes sings with piercing tenderness—and wry reflection—of realizing a love is over, but not being able to let go, as bandmates Jonathan Pearce (guitar, vocals, keys, production), Benjamin Sinclair (bass, vocals), and Tristan Deck (drums, vocals) push the song from crescendo to crescendo.

The propulsive “Knees Deep” follows, contrasting a loved one’s courage to her own anxiety, to deliciously crunchy guitar over an urgent rhythm section. The same applies on the even faster-paced “Silence Is Golden,” whose careening feel reminds of early Jimmy Eat World, buzzing with a manic energy. Contrast arrives with “Your Side,” a jangly charmer full of yearning for a lover who’s gone away.

The brief “I Want To Listen” manages to sound both tart and reflective as its overwhelmed narrator sorts through the sprawling mess of her life. Then “Head In The Clouds” barges in with a big, anthemic sound, pumping rhythm section and crunchy guitars topped with Stokes’ urgent lead vocals and the band’s soaring harmonies on this might-be-time-to-break-up relationship reassessment. How that question was answered is strongly implied by “Best Left,” whose repeating chorus goes “Some things are best left to rot”; then they shake it off and move forward on the tumbling, propulsive “Change In The Weather.”

The final third of the album loses none of the achieved momentum. “When You Know, You Know” mixes sweet vulnerability with jangly guitars and crashing drums to strong effect while offering a topic sentence for the album:

But if you won't commit to the expedition
I could go alone on a solo mission
Never seen a heart in a worse condition
Pinning all my hopes to the wrong pincushion

“A Passing Rain” moves back and forth between laid-back verses and aggressive choruses, again feeling a bit Jimmy Eat World in its shifting moods and textures. Penultimate track “I Told You That I Was Afraid” is quintessential Beths, setting a song about being riddled with self-doubt to surging rhythms, driving guitars and strong counterpoint harmonies on the chorus. For one final bit of contrast, closer “2am” is the airiest number here, turning up the melancholy and nostalgia without losing the jangle.

The word that kept coming up as I moved from track to track on this album was “tasty.” Expert In A Dying Field is one of those albums where the songs are like M&Ms—you try one, it’s great, and you immediately want another. The nice thing here is that these flavorful morsels are nourishing, too. I may be late to the game once again, but it turns out The Beths made one of my favorite power-pop albums of 2022.

Rating: A-

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