It's a Beautiful Place

Last updated

It's a Beautiful Place
Wfye-its-a-beautiful-place.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedAugust 22, 2025 (2025-08-22)
Recorded2024–2025
Genre
Length29:11
Label Matador
Producer Nate Amos
Water from Your Eyes chronology
MP3 Player 1
(2024)
It's a Beautiful Place
(2025)
Singles from It's a Beautiful Place
  1. "Life Signs"
    Released: June 4, 2025
  2. "Playing Classics"
    Released: July 15, 2025
  3. "Nights in Armor"
    Released: August 18, 2025

It's a Beautiful Place is the seventh studio album by American indie pop band Water from Your Eyes. The album was released on August 22, 2025, through Matador Records. It was supported by three singles and a tour across North America and Europe. Water from Your Eyes would begin working on new material in 2024, recording in Amos' bedroom, and in New York.

Contents

It's a Beautiful Place is an alternative pop and rock album that explores themes of cosmic insignificance versus human importance, the nature of meaning, and the challenges of optimism in a difficult world. Between September and December 2025, Water from Your Eyes embarked on a headlining tour for the album. Upon release, the album would receive critical acclaim from multiple publications.

Background and composition

It's a Beautiful Place was made to be an experimental album, as Amos had stated "we wanted to present a wide range of styles in a way that acknowledges everything’s just a tiny blip.” [1] Most of the recording was done in Amos' bedroom. [2] [3] The album was recorded in New York by Rachel Brown and Nate Amos and features 10 tracks, clocking out at about 29 minutes. [1] Amos and Brown had strived to balance a worldview that holds factors of absurdity, existentialism and cosmic truths–all of which they had attempted to pack into the runtime of It's a Beautiful Place. [4] Amos worked on his home computer producing the songs apart and reconstructing. [1] [3] The album consists of ten songs with six of those containing lyrics and the other four being instrumentals. [1] Amelie Grice of Clash would write about the lead single "Life Signs" saying it "starts with a fast-paced, dry but stylish urgency which later erupts into a more typical Water From Your Eyes overflowing, energetic and enjoyably over-stimulating style." [5] The album explores existential themes of cosmic insignificance versus human importance, the nature of meaning, and the challenges of optimism in a difficult world alongside the darker and deeper humor. [6] Musically, it blends various styles, from disco-infused alt-pop to folk-rock and psychedelic sounds, creating a unique and adventurous listening experience. It's a Beautiful Place's theme was written around the recording of Everyone's Crushed (2023). [3]

Release and promotion

It's a Beautiful Place's lead single "Life Signs" would be released on June 4, 2025. [3] [7] With a music video finding Water from Your Eyes trapped in an endless loop of television. [2] Brown stated that television was her "biggest passion." [2] "Playing Classics" would be released as the second single on July 15. [8] Followed by the third and final single "Nights in Armor" on August 18. [9] The album would be announced after the lead single's release, and arrived on August 22, 2025, [10] through Matador Records. [11] [12] Following the release of Everyone's Crushed (2023), Water from Your Eyes would announce the It's a Beautiful Place Tour and its 48 concert dates throughout North America and Europe. [6] [13] The tour began on September 22, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is expected to conclude on November 7, 2025 in Denver, Colorado. [14]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?8.1/10 [15]
Metacritic 82/100 [16]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [17]
Clash 8/10 [5]
Exclaim! 8/10 [4]
The Line of Best Fit 8/10 [18]
Mojo Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [19]
NME Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [20]
Paste 8.7/10 [21]
Pitchfork 8.3/10 [22]
PopMatters 8/10 [11]
The Skinny Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [23]

Editors at AnyDecentMusic? would rate It's a Beautiful Place an 8.1 out of 10, based on 15 scores. [15]

Philip Sherburne of Pitchfork rated the album an 8.3 out of 10, writing "super chill and totally destabilizing. To call it their [guitar record] would be an injustice to the range and the humor they find in it." [22] Paste's Vic Borlando would rate it 8.7 out of 10 saying the album "makes disenchantment feel as grandiose and overwhelming as falling out of love." [21] Meanwhile Exclaim's Eric Hill, an 8 out of 10. Hill would comment "the duo continue their upward trajectory, finding new and casually complex ways of expressing their musical minds." [4] Another 8 out of 10 came from Alison Ross of PopMatters who praised Brown's voice for having "a quality that draws you into its secretive sphere" and the group's "stunning" musical maturity. [11] Matty Pywell writing for NME would write "One of indie’s most unique duos embrace sci-fi sounds, frightening existentialism and a newfound heaviness," rating the record of 4 out of 5. [20] Tom Phelan of Far Out Magazine felt that it "feeds a vast array of styles into its aural processor in such an incongruous flair that, rather than merely rustling up a web of idiosyncratic genre fusions, the musical flavours [they] so evidently love are harnessed on a deeper, essential level." [24] Devin Birse of The Line of Best Fit would write about It's a Beautiful Place saying its "a screeching Hail Mary, a short self-imploding burst of infinity guitars held together by a complex web of mathy rhythms." [18] The Skinny's Noah Barker felt that while the material is "scarce," the quality is a "renewable resource on par with a nuclear fusion plant. Choruses hum, drumlines bounce, and there's always enough subversion for leftovers". [23]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."One Small Step"0:26
2."Life Signs"4:32
3."Nights in Armor"3:09
4."Born 2"4:24
5."You Don't Believe in God?"1:25
6."Spaceship"4:49
7."Playing Classics"5:53
8."It's a Beautiful Place"0:50
9."Blood on the Dollar"2:40
10."For Mankind"0:59
Total length:29:11

Personnel

Credits from Tidal. [25]

Charts

Chart performance for It's a Beautiful Place
Chart (2025)Peak
position
Scottish Albums (OCC) [26] 74
UK Album Downloads (OCC) [27] 53
UK Independent Albums (OCC) [28] 21

Release history

Release dates and formats for It's A Beautiful Place
RegionDateFormat(s)VersionLabelRef.
VariousAugust 22, 2025Original Matador Records [29]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Leas, Ryan (August 19, 2025). "Album Of The Week: Water From Your Eyes It's A Beautiful Place". Stereogum. Retrieved September 13, 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 Blistein, Jon (June 4, 2025). "Water From Your Eyes Look for 'Life Signs' With Y2K Riffs on New Song". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 13, 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Moreland, Quinn (June 25, 2025). "Your favourite album is not as cool as any dinosaur: set sail with New York art rock duo Water From Your Eyes". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved September 15, 2025.
  4. 1 2 3 Hill, Eric (August 20, 2025). "Water from Your Eyes Mirror the Overstimulated Modern Mind—and It's a Beautiful Place". Exclaim! . Retrieved September 13, 2025.
  5. 1 2 Grice, Amelie (August 22, 2025). "Water From Your Eyes–It's A Beautiful Place". Clash . Retrieved September 13, 2025.
  6. 1 2 Castillo, Bree (August 31, 2025). "Water From Your Eyes Wuz Here–New Album, It's a Beautiful Place". Flaunt. Retrieved September 13, 2025.
  7. Seidlitz, Holden (June 4, 2025). "Water From Your Eyes: Life Signs". Pitchfork . Retrieved August 22, 2025.
  8. Jones, Abby (July 15, 2025). "Water From Your Eyes–Playing Classics". Stereogum. Retrieved September 17, 2025.
  9. Jones, Abby (August 18, 2025). "Water From Your Eyes–Nights In Armor". Stereogum. Retrieved September 17, 2025.
  10. David, Laura (August 22, 2025). "Water From Your Eyes Is Too Cool To Pin Down". Nylon . Retrieved September 15, 2025.
  11. 1 2 3 Ross, Alison (September 10, 2025). "No One Is Crushed in Water From Your Eyes' Beautiful World". PopMatters. Retrieved September 14, 2025.
  12. Vozick-Levinson, Simon (August 22, 2025). "Water From Your Eyes Decode Their New Album's Inside Jokes and Far-Out Concepts". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 14, 2025.
  13. LaPierre, Megan (June 4, 2025). "Water from Your Eyes Unveil New Album 'It's a Beautiful Place,' North American Tour". Exclaim! . Retrieved September 14, 2025.
  14. Green, Walden (June 4, 2025). "Water From Your Eyes Announce Tour and New Album, Share Video". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 14, 2025.
  15. 1 2 "It's A Beautiful Place by Water From Your Eyes reviews". Any Decent Music. Retrieved September 13, 2025.
  16. "It's A Beautiful Place by Water From Your Eyes Reviews and Tracks". Metacritic . Retrieved September 21, 2025.
  17. Phares, Heather. It's a Beautiful Place at AllMusic. Retrieved September 12, 2025.
  18. 1 2 Birse, Devin (August 19, 2025). "Water From Your Eyes: It's a Beautiful Place review–focused dedication". The Line of Best Fit . Retrieved September 14, 2025.
  19. "Water from Your Eyes: It's a Beautiful Place". Mojo . August 2025.
  20. 1 2 Pywell, Matty (August 18, 2025). "Water From Your Eyes–'It's A Beautiful Place' review: a portal to a strange alien world". NME. Retrieved September 13, 2025.
  21. 1 2 Borlando, Vic (August 20, 2025). "Water From Your Eyes, 'It's A Beautiful Place' Album Review". Paste . Retrieved September 12, 2025.
  22. 1 2 Sherburne, Philip (August 26, 2025). "Water From Your Eyes: It's a Beautiful Place". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 12, 2025.
  23. 1 2 Barker, Noah (August 19, 2025). "Water From Your Eyes–It's a Beautiful Place review: The Skinny". The Skinny . Retrieved September 14, 2025.
  24. Phelan, Tom (August 20, 2025). "Water From Your Eyes - 'It's a Beautiful Place' album review". Far Out Magazine. Retrieved September 15, 2025.
  25. Amos, Nate; Brown, Rachel (August 22, 2025). "Water From Your Eyes - It's a Beautiful Place". Tidal . Retrieved September 17, 2025.
  26. "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved September 13, 2025.
  27. "Official Album Downloads Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved September 14, 2025.
  28. "Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved September 13, 2025.
  29. It's a Beautiful Place release formats: