Starting off their career as an L.A. duo heavily indebted to eardrum-bruising noise rock and echo-damaged shoegaze, Alpine Decline took detours to China (where they lived for many years) and into synthesizer experiments (like 2015's INK) before reestablishing themselves as gently psychedelic jangle poppers on 2018's Return to Desolation Lake. By the time of 2021's For the Betterment of Well People, the duo had expanded to a full band and planted themselves closer to the singer/songwriter tradition than that of noise rock.