After nearly over a decade, four albums, and hundreds of millions of streams across various platforms, Beta Radio’s Ben Mabry and Brent Holloman decided to see other people. The duo’s new album Waiting for the End to Come marks the first time they’ve worked with other songwriters. It was during a weeklong writing retreat in Nashville that the two longtime friends shared a creative experience that bordered on the spiritual.
If 2021’s Year of Love is about searching for something – language, answers, love – Waiting for the End to Come is about finding it. The songs are grounded in a physicality that’s gorgeously set against the sonic wall of acoustic guitars, strings, and the harmonies for which Beta Radio has become so well known.
On this album, that energy is underpinned and supported by the broad shoulders of narrative-driven songwriting that feels urgent, tactile, and resonant. Every song on Waiting for the End to Come feels like a radio song, no small feat for a band with such an expansive sound, a band that routinely reaches emotional heights while soaring on mystical themes.
On Waiting for the End to Come, Beta Radio is not on the verge of something new. They are in the midst of it, and it is wonderful to be there with them
Today Glide is offering an exclusive premiere of “The Grief Of” and its accompanying music video. Beginning minimally with pianos and vocals, the band gradually layers in instruments and musical textures to match the soulful emotion of the vocals and lyrics. We hear delicate touches of guitar and it feels like this could be a slow and quiet song before it unexpectedly explodes into an array of folk-rock power. The ability of the group to build suspense and contrast those quiet and subtle moments with bursts of euphoria is on full display.
The group describes the inspiration behind the song:
“’The Grief Of’ was written after we went to a bookstore near our recording studio and got a book of Rumi poems. I really like Sufi poetry and there’s a lot about duality in that book. That’s what the song is about…duality, the duality of desire and aversion. It’s about realizing that to get something you want, you will have to suffer. And you can try to hide or choose to look, but that grief will hold up a mirror to you, and you’ll see what it reflects.”
WATCH:
