In 2003, an under-the-radar band named Beulah released Yoko, their final record. In the decade preceding, Beulah had been one of the many bands to become a success story of the Elephant 6 collective, along with Apples in Stereo and Neutral Milk Hotel, and like many of those bands they used a lineage of sugary, almost cloying musical tricks going back to the Beach Boys in order to appeal to a certain set of ironic, disaffected music fans who wanted to like pop music without feeling duped by commerce.

Beulah had delivered several albums in this merry yet vein attempt, but after almost every member of the band broke up with a longtime girlfriend or divorced a longtime wife, the tone shifted in a disarmingly subtle fashion. On Yoko, the catchy hooks were still there, the cheery horn and string arrangements were as blithe as they had ever been, but something was indescribably, yet painfully, different. On second and third listen, lyrics like “Cause you’re scared and you’re weak and you don’t give a fuck about me” popped out of the texture, having at first blended in because of the impassioned earnestness of Miles Kurosky’s voice. The songs have long intros and outros, nearly giving the listener the satisfaction that is then ripped away when the song suddenly ends or drastically changes course. “Landslide Baby” ends with a pulsing buildup that seems almost comically misplaced so late in the song, only to ascend into a fade out. Such a move is in full spirit of the words, which constantly point to how easily one can lose everything after trying so hard to be a good person.

As if to make the narrative even more bittersweet, the members of Beulah parted ways after Yoko failed to reach gold status. In the six years since Beulah’s final tour, Kurosky was hospitalized multiple times, and the unconcerned happiness of the early Beulah records seems to parody the band’s future in a way that could perhaps be an allegory for how we all grow old and must deal with the fleeting quality of all things, including ourselves. Nevertheless, Kurosky is releasing his first solo effort, The Desert of Shallow Effects, on March 9.