{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox album | name = The Unnatural World | type = studio | artist = [[Have a Nice Life]] | cover = Have a Nice Life - The Unnatural World.jpg | border = yes | alt = | released = {{Start date|2014|2|4}}<ref>{{cite web | url=https://consequence.net/album/have-a-nice-life-unnatural-world/ | title=Have A Nice Life – Unnatural World | publisher=[[Consequence of Sound]] | access-date=January 29, 2014}}</ref> | recorded = 2008–2012 | venue = | studio = | genre = *[[Post-punk]] *[[gothic rock]] | length = {{Duration|m=47|s=20}} | label = Enemies List Home Recordings,<br/>[[The Flenser]] | producer = | prev_title = Time of Land | prev_year = 2010 | next_title = [[Sea of Worry]] | next_year = 2019 }} {{Music ratings | MC = 79/100<ref name=metacritic>{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/music/the-unnatural-world/have-a-nice-life |title=Unnatural World |publisher=[[Metacritic]]|accessdate=July 9, 2020}}</ref> | rev1 = [[AbsolutePunk]] | rev1score = 9.25/10<ref name="absolute punk">{{cite web|url=http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=3656101 |title=Have a Nice Life – The Unnatural World |date=6 February 2014 |publisher=[[AbsolutePunk]]|last=Collum|first=Chris|accessdate=7 February 2014}}</ref> | rev2 = ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]'' | rev2Score = 7.8/10<ref name="Pitchfork">{{cite web|url=http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18828-have-a-nice-life-the-unnatural-world/|title=Have a Nice Life: The Unnatural World|date=6 February 2014 |publisher=[[Pitchfork Media]]|last=Heller|first=Jason|accessdate=6 February 2014}}</ref> | rev3 = Unrecorded | rev3Score = 78/100<ref name="Unrecorded">{{cite web|url=http://www.unrecorded.mu/reviews/have-a-nice-life-the-unnatural-world//|title=Have a Nice Life – The Unnatural World|date=5 February 2014 |publisher=Unrecorded|last=Abraham|first=Barnabas|accessdate=13 January 2015}}</ref> }} '''''The Unnatural World''''' is the second studio album by American rock duo [[Have a Nice Life]]. It was released on February 4, 2014, via [[The Flenser]] and the band's own record label Enemies List Home Recordings. It is a follow-up to 2008's ''[[Deathconsciousness]]'' and 2010's ''Time of Land'' EP.<ref name="p4k" />
The band recorded the album from 2008 to 2012 "in various bedrooms" between [[Connecticut]] and [[Massachusetts]], according to its liner notes. The tracks "Defenestration Song" and "Burial Society" premiered in December 2013 and January 2014, respectively.<ref name="npr">{{cite web | url=https://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2013/12/10/250002714/vikings-choice-this-song-is-literally-for-throwing-stuff-out-the-window?sc=tw&cc=twmp | title=Viking's Choice: This Song Is Literally For Throwing Stuff Out The Window | publisher=[[NPR|NPR.org]] | date=December 11, 2013 | accessdate=January 29, 2014 | author=Gotrich, Lars}}</ref><ref name="vice">{{cite web | url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/listen-to-have-a-nice-lifes-new-tune-burial-society/ | title=Listen to: "Have a Nice Life's new tune, 'Burial Society'" | publisher=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] | date=January 8, 2014 | access-date=January 29, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.chartattack.com/news/tracks-news/2014/01/22/hear-burial-society-from-conneticut-shoegaze-band-have-a-nice-life/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140131193052/http://www.chartattack.com/news/tracks-news/2014/01/22/hear-burial-society-from-conneticut-shoegaze-band-have-a-nice-life/ | url-status=usurped | archive-date=January 31, 2014 | title=Listen: Connecticut shoegaze band Have A Nice Life's punishing new song, "Burial Society" | publisher=[[ChartAttack]] | date=January 22, 2014 | accessdate=January 29, 2014 | author=Darville, Jordan}}</ref> The full album was streamed by [[Pitchfork Media]] from January 20 to January 27, 2014.<ref name="p4k">{{cite web | url=http://pitchfork.com/news/53650-stream-new-lps-from-have-a-nice-life-bohren-der-club-of-gore-and-jess-williamson-via-pitchfork-advance/ | title=Stream New LPs From Have a Nice Life, Bohren & Der Club of Gore, and Jess Williamson Via Pitchfork Advance | publisher=[[Pitchfork Media]] | date=January 20, 2014 | accessdate=January 29, 2014}}</ref>
==Tracks and musical style== Andrew Sacher and Wyatt Marshall of [[BrooklynVegan]] wrote that "the album falls somewhere between [[gothic rock|goth]], [[noise music|noise]], [[shoegaze]] and [[post-punk]]." They also described the album as "addictively melodic for such dark music."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2014/01/have_a_nice_lif.html | title=Have A Nice Life and Woods of Desolation streaming new LPs (listen to both) | publisher=[[BrooklynVegan]] | date=January 24, 2014 | accessdate=January 29, 2014 | author=Sacher, Andrew and Wyatt Marshall}}</ref>
[[Vice (magazine)|Noisey Vice]] stated that the song "Burial Society" had "a [[Nine Inch Nails]]-meets-post-punk vibe," which "evidenced Have a Nice Life's leanings on the sonic dark side in the record.<ref name="vice"/> Lars Gotrich of [[NPR]] described the track "Defenestration Song" as "the kind of pitch-black, post-punk party-rocker that'd really turn up at any Goth Night dance." He also wrote: "A two-note guitar riff is barely heard above the dank din as warming feedback permeates the whole affair, like the kind that lulls you to sleep just before an icy death" while comparing the song's rhythm and distorted bass line to the works of the [[gothic rock]] pioneers [[Bauhaus (band)|Bauhaus]].<ref name="npr"/>
Of the track "Dan and Tim, Reunited by Fate", [[Tiny Mix Tapes]] wrote that "the pair cherrypick tropes from a number of bleak traditions: reverb-drenched [[Industrial music|industrial]] beats; [[doom metal|doom-metal]] [[Sludge metal|sludge]]; shoegaze [[drone (music)|drones]] conjured from effects pedals; post-punk bass chuggery; a plaintive piano+static [[post-rock]] [[Dynamics (music)|crescendo]]." Tiny Mix Tapes also wrote that the band holds this genre palette together "by matching its compositional ambitions with idiosyncratic recording and production techniques."<ref name="tmt">{{cite web | url=http://www.tinymixtapes.com/chocolate-grinder/listen-have-a-nice-life-dan-and-tim-reunited-by-fate | title=Have A Nice Life – "Dan And Tim, Reunited By Fate" | publisher=[[Tiny Mix Tapes]] | date=January 21, 2014 | accessdate=January 29, 2014}}</ref>
==Track listing== {{track listing | all_writing = Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga | total_length = 47:20 | title1 = Guggenheim Wax Museum | length1 = 5:14 | title2 = Defenestration Song | length2 = 6:02 | title3 = Burial Society | length3 = 6:40 | title4 = Music Will Untune the Sky | length4 = 5:00 | title5 = Cropsey | length5 = 7:10 | title6 = Unholy Life | length6 = 2:50 | title7 = Dan and Tim, Reunited by Fate | length7 = 5:35 | title8 = Emptiness Will Eat the Witch | length8 = 8:49 }}
==Personnel== ;Have a Nice Life *Dan Barrett – performance, writing *Tim Macuga – performance, writing
;Production *Kevin Blackler – mastering
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://store.theflenser.com/product/have-a-nice-life-the-unnatural-world-lp-pre-order The Unnatural World on The Flenser Records] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202095927/http://store.theflenser.com/product/have-a-nice-life-the-unnatural-world-lp-pre-order |date=2014-02-02 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Unnatural World, The}} [[Category:2014 albums]] [[Category:Have a Nice Life albums]] [[Category:The Flenser albums]]