Acclaimed California musician Christian Lee Hutson has released ‘Beauty School,’ the second track to be taken from his highly anticipated upcoming album Paradise Pop. 10 out on September 27th via ANTI Records.
‘Beauty School’ perfectly soundtracks the fleeting moments of summer, with Katy Kirby’s backing vocals elevating the song’s disarming pop-punk poolside folk rock. Of the track, Christian says, “Beauty school is a love song to myself and to you. To all the people we’ve been and to all the people we will be.”
Paradise Pop. 10 is co-produced with three of Hutson’s longtime collaborators: 4x GRAMMY winner Phoebe Bridgers, GRAMMY-nominated songwriter & producer Marshall Vore and GRAMMY-nominated engineer & multi-instrumentalist Joseph Lorge. The album also features guest vocals from Bridgers, Katy Kirby, and Maya Hawke – another frequent collaborator whose universally lauded new album credits Hutson as producer and co-writer.
Paradise Pop. 10 is Hutson’s first release since 2022’s Quitters, which saw him earn widespread critical acclaim. Produced by Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst, it was the follow up to his dazzling 2020 debut, Beginners, praised by Pitchfork as “a stunningly empathetic study of human frailties.”
Recorded in the depths of winter at Brooklyn’s Figure 8 Studio, the close-knit talents from Los Angeles hunkered down to craft a brilliantly constructed and tender album. A captivating, breezy charm permeates every track of Paradise Pop. 10, with each song hooked around Hutson’s warm, earthy vocals and dexterous story-telling. Whether fragile finger-picking folk or rousing, beachy power pop, these songs are informed by a sense of creeping melancholy about the place Hutson has spent most of his life; in the lead up to the writing and recording of the album the sprawling, inscrutable city of Los Angeles had become haunted in his mind. A move to the East Coast, and the “eyes up” ity of New York, was required to refresh his memory banks. “I wanted to make an eyes up record. A looking forward record,” he explains.
Paradise Pop. 10 takes its name from a real life “town” set deep in the woods of Parke County, Indiana, near where Hutson spent some of his childhood. There, just past the population sign, you’ll find a row of 5 houses on one side of the road and a cemetery on the other.
Praise for Christian Lee Hutson:
“Few lyricists can paint such clear portraits in such a small space; even fewer can set them so naturally to such long-breathed melodies.” – Pitchfork
“These are small films in song, delicate and devastating, lingering long.” – The Guardian
“…he wraps jagged, elliptical stories in delicious haunted melodies and intriguing, colourful, self-deprecating lyrics… these songs, even those with rough edges, are infused with a real sense of humanity, their black humour cocking a snook at an indifferent world.” – The Irish Times
“masterful storytelling… an artist fully formed and wise beyond his years” – No Depression
“When Hutson is at his most unguarded and vulnerable, he makes for one of his generation’s strongest songwriters.” – The Line Of Best Fit
“Hutson possesses a rare balance of critical wit and soul.” – Paste
“Hutson is an integral new voice in the extended collective of fast-rising twenty-something L.A. singer-songwriters” – Rolling Stone
PRE-ORDER ‘PARADISE POP. 10’ HERE
Tracklist for Paradise Pop. 10
- Tiger
- Carousel Horses
- Autopilot
- Water Ballet
- Candyland
- Flamingos
- Fan Fiction
- After Hours
- Forever Immortalized
- Skeleton Crew
- Beauty School
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