Chad Clark used to make self-conscious, fractured postpunk as the frontman of the great D.C. band Smart Went Crazy, probably the single most self-aware band in the history of Dischord Records. Since 2011, he’s led the mutant-pop quintet Beauty Pill. But Beauty Pill haven’t released an album since 2004’s The Unsustainable Lifestyle, largely because Clark has been dealing with a rare viral disease that affected his heart. But the band is fully back in action now, and they recorded their new album Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are in the D.C. arts center Artisphere, where anyone visiting could watch the band at work through a window. First single “Dog With Rabbit In Mouth, Unharmed” is the sort of spindly, off-kilter experimental folk song that I generally associate with the Asthmatic Kitty label. Give it a listen below.

Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are is out 4/21 on Butterscotch.