Christian Lee Hutson Releases New Track 'Beauty School'

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” city 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.

Hutson will be embarking on a Fall European tour as well as two U.S record release shows, slated for September 26 at South Pasadena Masonic Lodge and September 30 at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, NY. All tour dates below.

Christian Lee Hutson - Fall Tour:

September 19 - Americanafest - Nashville, TN

September 26 - South Pasadena Masonic Lodge - Los Angeles, CA

September 30 - Music Hall of Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY

October 30 - Dunk - Oslo, Norway

October 31 - Debaser - Stockholm, Sweden

November 1 - Pustervik - Gothenburg, Sweden

November 2 - Ideal Bar - Copenhagen, Denmark

November 3 - Privatclub - Berlin, Germany

November 5 - Witloof Bar - Brussels, Belgium

November 6 - Paradiso Upstairs - Amsterdam, Netherlands

November 7 - Pitchfork Avant Garde - Paris, France

November 10 - Inside Seaside - Gdansk, Poland

November 12 - Dareshack - Bristol, UK

November 13 - Lafayette - London, UK

November 14 - The Lodge at Deaf Institute - Manchester, UK

November 15 - Oran Mor - Glasgow, UK

Photo credit: Michael Delaney

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