''Harmlessness'' is the second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band

The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die is an American rock band formed in Willimantic, Connecticut, in 2009. Following the release of several EPs and splits featuring original lead singer Thomas Diaz, they released their ...

. It was announced on August 4, 2015, and was released on September 25, 2015. The title of the album is a play on the name of the band's first EP, ''Formlessness''.

Reception

''Harmlessness'' charted at number 11 on the

Heatseekers Albums The Heatseekers charts were "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales b ...

chart, and at number 46 on the

Independent Albums The Independent Albums chart (previously titled Top Independent Albums) ranks the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays (EPs) in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by '' Billboard'' mag ...

chart. Upon release, the album received critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from specialized critics, the album received an average score of 84, based on 6 reviews. ''

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several awar ...

'' placed the album at number 13 on their top 50 albums of 2015 list. James of ''Stereogum'' wrote: "It's not the kind of music that will change the world, but it might just change your life." Aaron Mook of ''

AbsolutePunk ''AbsolutePunk'' was a website, online community, and alternative music news source founded by Jason Tate (the most recent CEO). The website mainly focused on artists who are relatively unknown to mainstream audiences, but it was known to featu ...

'' wrote: "''Harmlessness'' is ambitious and intimidating in scope; it is not an easy listen, but with the right amount of time and dedication, it is easily one of the most rewarding listens of 2015." "January 10th, 2014" appeared on a best-of emo songs list by ''

Vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to Nort ...

''.

Legacy

In 2017, ''Harmlessness'' placed seventh on ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

''s list of the

emo revival The emo revival, or fourth wave emo, was an underground emo movement which began in the late 2000s and flourished until the mid-to-late 2010s. The movement began towards the end of the 2000s Emo-pop, third-wave emo, with Pennsylvania-based groups ...

's 30 best albums, with writer Ian Cohen dubbing it "one of the most stunningly accomplished

records of the past decade." Several months later, Cohen called it "an astonishing redirection" for indie rock, seeing it anticipate the genre's impending fusion of the late 90's

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

scene's "experimental and expanse" with mid-00s

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

indie's "grandeur" that would give way to the emo revival. In 2021, ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

''s Adam Feibel wrote that the album had "frequently been held up as he band'scrowning achievement".

Accolades

Track listing

Personnel

The lineup for this album is: * David Bello - vocals * Nicole Shanholtzer - guitar, vocals * Josh Cyr - bass guitar, acoustic guitar * Katie Dvorak - synthesizer, vocals * Steven Buttery - percussion * Chris Teti - production, engineering, mixing, guitar, vocals, percussion * Nick Kwas - violin * Tyler Bussey - guitar, banjo, vocals * Greg Horbal - guitar

References

{{Wikiquote 2015 albums The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die albums Epitaph Records albums