Album Review: No Scare by Health&Beauty

Few contemporary Chicago indie rock bands exemplify the hard-to-define nature of their hometown’s overlapping scenes — and what makes contributing to creative communities with such porous borders exciting — like Health&Beauty. The band started in 2003 as a vehicle for singer-guitarist Brian J. Sulpizio, a producer and engineer who has recorded freakish noise rockers Lechuguillas, eerie post-punks Toupee, and adventurous indie poppers Mines.

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No Scare marks the Wichita Recordings debut of Health&Beauty, an experimental rock project led by guitarist/songwriter Brian J. Sulpizio (Ryley Walker), who'd already released a handful of albums under the moniker. With keyboardist Ben Boye (Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Angel Olsen) and drummer Frank Rosaly (Peter Brötzmann, Joan of Arc) on board, the group began operating as an official trio in 2013, and this is the lineup's first LP.

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Filling in the gaps between art-rock, indie-pop and experimental self-indulgence, No Scare is the sixth full-length album by Chicago’s Health&Beauty. Just seven songs long, it trades off wistful sentiment against carefree melodies that – deliberately – come off as if they’re being made up on the spot. The best example of this is the title track, which attempts to fuse jarring, angular guitars with a somewhat saccharine melody.

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Formed by someone who mainly produces rather than creates music, with a cult following of a few thousand, and using social media mainly for off-beat jokes you can only imagine with a deadpan delivery, Health&Beauty are the epitome of A Hipster Band. They are Like No Other Band Out There. They Use Instruments In Ways No-One Else Does. The kind of band I would’ve gone around telling everyone were brilliant trying to convince myself as much as them that this was true when I was about 15-16.

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