| How Beautiful Life Can Be | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 24 September 2021 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock | |||
| Length | 39:00 | |||
| Label | Island | |||
| The Lathums chronology | ||||
| ||||
How Beautiful Life Can Be is the debut studio album by the English indie rock band the Lathums, released on 24 September 2021 by record label Island Records. The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart on 1 October 2021.[1]
The band's producer, the Coral's James Skelly, helped create the album, which featured some of the band's singles from 2019 and 2021. He also helped produce new songs that would appear on their debut album.
Alex Moore mentioned in an interview on Radio X that during the lockdown, where they were able to socially distance from one another, they started playing the song "Circles of Faith", which they decided would be the opening track for their debut album. It was the first song recorded for How Beautiful Life Can Be.[2]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 72/100[3] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| The Guardian |   [4] |
| NME | [5] |
NME gave the album four out of five stars stating, "It's been quite a year for them during the pandemic."[5] The Guardian gave the three out of five stars stating that "Its retro sensibility and guileless tone means How Beautiful Life Can Be is the guitar music equivalent of comfort food: undemanding, slightly stupefying, but immensely cheering all the same".[4] On Metacritic, it received an average score of 72, with four positive reviews and two mixed reviews.[3]
All tracks are written by Moore, Concepcion, Cunliffe and Durrans
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Circles of Faith" | 3:30 |
| 2. | "I'll Get By" | 2:31 |
| 3. | "Fight On" | 2:49 |
| 4. | "How Beautiful Life Can Be" | 2:47 |
| 5. | "The Great Escape" | 3:49 |
| 6. | "I Won't Lie" | 2:51 |
| 7. | "I See Your Ghost" | 2:33 |
| 8. | "Oh My Love" | 2:23 |
| 9. | "I'll Never Forget the Time I Spent with You" | 3:14 |
| 10. | "I Know That Much" | 3:22 |
| 11. | "Artificial Screens" | 5:15 |
| 12. | "The Redemption of Sonic Beauty" | 3:57 |
| Total length: | 39:01 | |
Notes
The Lathums
Production
| Chart (2021) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Irish Albums (IRMA)[6] | 71 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC)[7] | 1 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[8] | 1 |