Pain Makes You Beautiful

Pain Makes You Beautiful is the third album by the American band the Judybats, released in 1993 by Sire Records.^[2][3] The album contains the band's most successful single, "Being Simple", which peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.^[4] The band supported the album with a North American tour.^[5]

Pain Makes You Beautiful
Studio album by The Judybats
Released	1993
Recorded	Long View Farm Studios, North Brookfield, Massachusetts[1]
Genre	Pop, rock, alternative rock
Length	44:06
Label	Sire/Warner Bros.
Producer	Kevin Moloney
The Judybats chronology
Down in the Shacks Where the Satellite Dishes Grow (1992) Pain Makes You Beautiful (1993) Full-Empty (1994)

Production

Pain Makes You Beautiful saw a significant lineup change for the band, with the departure of keyboardist Peggy Hambright and bassist Timothy Stutz and the arrival of bassist Paul Noe and drummer Dave Kenkins.^[6][7] Recorded live in the studio, the album was produced by Kevin Moloney,^[8][9] who helped the band to shorten and rearrange their songs.^[10] The recording studio, Long View Farm Studios, was a country barn, built above horse stables.^[11] Many of the songs' lyrics were inspired by the lives of frontman Jeff Heiskell and his friends.^[12]

In 2023, Heiskell stated that he loved Moloney's production on the album, which introduced more "organic sounds", and added that he felt the band's earlier records had been overproduced by comparison.^[11]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[6]
Chicago Tribune	[13]
The Republican	[14]

Trouser Press stated that "the musicianship is at a consistently high caliber, and the songwriting is tremendously diverse."^[7] The Chicago Tribune concluded that "Heiskell, a dominant vocal presence live, is still too mannered on record; he's like a drawling male Annie Lennox, with every intonation sounding studied and self-conscious."^[13] The Republican wrote: "Flying in the face of grunge trends, they pack a rippling batch of melodies into crisp pop tracks like the exhilarating 'Ugly on the Outside'."^[14] The Washington Post determined that "the Judybats slip loose of their New South neo-folk-rock mold, though not singer/lyricist Jeff Heiskell's sometimes annoying conceits."^[15] The Associated Press deemed the album "lightweight pop ... overloaded with ponderous pretensions."^[16]

In a retrospective review, Stewart Mason of AllMusic thought the album traded the band's "folky eccentricities" for "a more identifiably alternative rock groove that's considerably less unique", and that Moloney "steers things a little too far to adult album alternative territory at times".^[6]

Track listing

All music by the Judybats, lyrics by Jeff Heiskell.

1. "All Day Afternoon" – 3:27
2. "Ugly on the Outside" – 3:47
3. "Being Simple" – 4:13
4. "An Intense Beige" – 3:25
5. "Geography" – 3:03
6. "Wasting Time" – 4:15
7. "Incredible Bittersweet" – 4:03
8. "Scarlett" – 3:24
9. "Trip Me Up" – 3:16
10. "La Dulcinea" – 3:30
11. "My Dead Friend" – 4:36
12. "Pain (Makes You Beautiful)" – 3:12

Personnel

The Judybats

• Jeff Heiskell – lead vocals
• Ed Winters – electric guitars
• Johnny Sughrue – acoustic & electric guitars, vocals
• Paul Noe – bass, guitar, vocals
• Dave Jenkins – drums & percussion

Technical

• Kevin Moloney – producer, mixer, engineer
• Michael H. Brauer – mixer ("All Day Afternoon")
• Bruck Dawit – assistant mixer ("All Day Afternoon")
• Jesse Henderson – second engineer
• Erik Flettrich – second engineer (mixing)
• Stephen Marcussen – mastering
• Perry Iannone – strings ("All Day Afternoon", "Wasting Time")
• Christine Cano – art direction and design
• Michael Wilson – photography