Rivalry on the Landing

“Better By Design” by A Beech Landing isn’t just a song—it’s the sound of one artist turning an imagined rivalry into a creative lifeline. Born from a deeply personal period of upheaval, the track carries the intimacy of its origin story: a musician displaced, armed with a guitar, a laptop, and a tiny beech-wood landing as both a physical and emotional anchor.

What’s fascinating here is how that raw, solitary process translated into something so richly layered. You can hear shades of Smashing Pumpkins grit, the dreamy haze of Tame Impala, and the infectious swagger of Britpop’s glory days, yet it all feels singular. The self-imposed Blur/Oasis-style competition fuels an urgency in the performance—driving rhythms, textured guitar lines, and a production that’s charmingly imperfect in the best analogue way.

The dirt-cheap gear used to mix and master adds a gritty warmth, giving the song a tactile, almost handmade quality that you just can’t fake with pristine digital polish. It’s music that wears its fingerprints proudly.

“Better By Design” is as much about the process as the product: the quiet obsession, the self-challenge, the joy of making something because you have to. It’s a testament to how rivalry—real or imagined—can light a fire under an artist and lead to something uniquely compelling. In the end, A Beech Landing may have been playing against no one else at all, but with this track, they’ve certainly scored a win.