Corella Make the Most of Every Track on A Beautiful World To Lose

There is no gentle introduction to A Beautiful World To Lose.  The Manchester indie rock band open their newest album with “Rewire,” and the guitar and drum intro immediately sets the scale for everything that follows. Joel Smith’s “set fire to the world, let me see you fall” leads into an incredibly hard breakdown that gives the opening track an irresistible intensity that hits immediately, and the songs only get bigger from there. 

That intensity gives way to “What’s The Use,” which softens the edges without losing the guitar-driven sound that makes the opening so enticing. The indie rock influences of The Wombats and Arctic Monkeys are noticeable, but Corella still maintains enough of their own character that the comparisons never hold too much weight. 

Produced by Grammy-winning Jason Perry, A Beautiful World To Lose is Corella’s second album and third project, with Smith on vocals and guitar, Ben Henderson on bass and vocals, Jack Taylor on guitar, and James Fawcett on drums.

“Lost A Friend” explores that indie sound even further, bringing in melodic piano rock, soaring falsetto vocals, and a larger, more atmospheric arrangement that calls for the kind of grand, stadium-sized performance associated with Coldplay. It’s an early indication of how easily Corella can move between sounds, showing how much ground Corella can cover within the same genre. Even at its biggest, the record leaves room for the quieter details to come through, giving the arrangements a sense of depth without weighing them down.

It is in the lyrics where some of the album’s most memorable images start to take shape. “Simple Life” strips things back into something brighter and immediately catchy, with its repeated “This is the simple life we need now, to be happy / Serenity on your face” carried by familiar guitar lines that make the chorus especially easy to remember. There is an ease to the track that works as a break from the heavier opening, while still fitting naturally into the record. 

“All I Want” brings some of the album’s softer side into focus, pairing its indie-leaning guitars with lyrics that carry a quiet sense of nostalgia. The lyrics “all I want for you is to find a love that’s true” and “we could be heroes in a different life” say plenty without needing much around them, and the closing guitar gives the track a strong finish.

“Bitter End” picks the momentum back up with a funky edge that gives the album one of its most immediately danceable moments. The song has enough energy to work in the car, at a bar, or coming from a stage, with the chorus built around “I wanna live through the bitter end / I know you know what I mean / I wanna live to the bitter end / Like the American Dream.” It’s striking without losing the grit that runs through the rest of the record. Drum flourishes give the guitars and Smith something different to play against, and the result is one of the record’s most fun combinations. Corella continues making small changes like this throughout the album, keeping the ten tracks varied without making the record sound disconnected.

‍ ‍A Beautiful World To Lose really hits its stride again with “Jump Scare.” The opening of the track practically demands movement, with “I’m staring at the ceiling / I’m bouncing off the wall” matching the restless energy of the instrumentation before the song continues building toward its breakdown. “Don’t tell me that it’s easy / Step inside my world” pushes the intensity even further, and the entire track has the kind of structure that makes it easy to picture a crowd jumping along with it. The guitars hit harder as the track progresses, and the ending explodes into a breakdown that feels built for a crowd to lose it to. 

The back half continues to play with that contrast. “Wolf” takes a darker turn, while “Thunder Strike,” written with Circa Waves frontman Kieran Shudall, keeps some of the album’s more chaotic energy alive. Even when the instrumentation changes, Corella’s songwriting keeps the record connected.

By the time “Note To Self” arrives, the album has earned the quieter space it occupies. The song opens with soft melodies and a restrained beat around “How did we get here,” giving Smith’s vocals room to sit at the center before the arrangement gradually grows into a much bigger closing section. “I want it, can’t have it / Got reasons but it don’t matter” takes on more weight in the context of the album’s earlier songs, and the final stretch has all the makings of a crowd singalong. Ending here also brings the record back to the sense of scale established by “Rewire,” only with a much slower build. It is a strong final statement for a record that spends so much time playing with scale and momentum.

There is a lot packed into A Beautiful World To Lose, but the album never loses sight of its purpose. Corella gives each song enough room to have its own identity while still making the record feel connected from beginning to end. The bigger moments never overshadow the quieter ones, and the softer tracks never feel like they are only there to break up the pace. Corella has packed plenty into these ten songs, and somehow nothing gets lost along the way.

Review by Bek Allegretti