The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid To Die have released their third full-length, Always Foreign. Always Foreign follows the Connecticut-bred collective’s acclaimed 2015 album Harmlessness.
Produced by TWIABP guitarist Christopher Teti, Always Foreign confronts everything from the opioid epidemic to xenophobia to emotional abuse in relationships. Throughout the album, TWIABP match their sprawling arrangements and layered lyricism with a raw emotionality.
“When we started writing we were fresh off Trump being elected, so there’s an anger to the album that’s different from what we’ve done in the past,” says TWIABP vocalist David F Bello. “There’s a lot more resistance thinking throughout the songs—not in a way that’s strictly anti-Trump, but also addressing things like white supremacy and controlling elements of the state.”
Along with Bello, Cyr, and Teti, the TWIABP lineup includes Tyler Bussey (guitar, banjo, synth, vocals), Dylan Balliett (guitar, vocals), Katie Dvorak (synth, vocals), and Steven K Buttery (percussion, vocals). Formed in Connecticut in 2009, TWIABP made their full-length debut with Whenever, If Ever (a 2013 release hailed as “revolutionary” by Pitchfork) and later delivered Harmlessness (praised as “bold and complex and dazzling” by Noisey and “grandiose and dramatic” by NPR).