{"id":47258,"date":"2025-10-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/straight-line-was-a-lie\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:20:07","slug":"straight-line-was-a-lie","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/straight-line-was-a-lie\/","title":{"rendered":"Straight Line Was A Lie"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Beths first pinged my musical radar less than a year ago, via one of the myriad music newsletters that clutter up my inbox on the regular. \u201cNew Zealand power-pop quartet fronted by sensitive singer-songwriter\u201d\u2014or whatever the blurb actually said\u2014pushed enough of my musical buttons to pique my curiosity, leading me to pick up the band\u2019s most recent album at the time, 2022\u2019s Expert In A Dying Field<\/i>. I dug it<\/a>. A lot.<\/p>\n

Cut to a few weeks ago, when The Beths\u2019 fourth full-length Straight Line Was A Lie<\/i> arrived and proceeded to take over my listening time like only a genuine musical crush can. Rich with insight, tender and quirky, hooky and devastating, Straight Line<\/i> finds The Beths taking cues from every great power-pop album ever made and pouring them all into a sound that blends the wounded snark of Courtney Barnett with the melodic exuberance of Fountains Of Wayne. <\/p>\n

That will be my last attempt at facile comparisons, though; for all the musical knowledge they\u2019ve clearly absorbed, The Beths\u2014Elizabeth Stokes (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, songwriting), Jonathan Pearce (guitar, backing vocals, production), Benjamin Sinclair (bass, backing vocals) and Tristan Deck (drums)\u2014are absolutely their own unique thing, and this album is a sparkling, warmly unpretentious, passionately performed work of art.<\/p>\n

Title track \u201cStraight Line Was A Lie\u201d kicks things off with ringing riffs, rippling melodies, soaring harmonies and infectious drive as Stokes muses about how we struggle to find direction in our lives, circling back around again and again. It\u2019s a journey she chronicles faithfully, one that\u2019s frustrating yet undeniably beautiful. A steady-building climactic jam caps this superb piece of songwriting, arranging and performing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMosquitoes\u201d opens gentle and acoustic with Stokes\u2019 wistful memories of younger days, feeling present in her body and in nature: \u201cI\u2019m only here to feed mosquitos \/ Only skin, only blood.\u201d As the music builds energy and scope, she tells the story of a torrential flood that tore through a favorite childhood haunt; it\u2019s a song about memory and loss and feeling both older and smaller than she once did. Pearce\u2019s guitar solo makes a statement, but it\u2019s the raw vulnerability Stokes conveys at the mic that leaves the biggest impression; her authenticity is her superpower. <\/p>\n

Naturally, after that, track three is a manic, pumping rocker about\u2026 depression, rife with sarcasm and sass. Pearce\u2019s guitars ring and sizzle while Sinclair\u2019s manic bass and Deck\u2019s pumping snare and bass drum provide the fibrillating heartbeat of \u201cNo Joy.\u201d More typical and equally impressive is the anthemic \u201cMetal,\u201d jangly as they come with another clever, driving rhythm arrangement behind Stokes\u2019 soaring vocal. It also features my favorite verse on the album: \u201cI know I\u2019m a collaboration \/ Bacteria, carbon and light \/ Performing an orchestration \/ Of recipe, fortune and time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group strips things down to the core on \u201cMother, Pray For Me,\u201d a gentle yet frank and heart-wrenching exploration of Stokes\u2019 difficult relationship with her mother, whom she loves across a yawning chasm of religious devotion versus non-belief. \u201cWe never let our colors bleed \/ I would like to know you and I want you to know me \/ Do we still have time, can we try?\u201d The lyric is that much more powerful for not leading to any real resolution.<\/p>\n

Things grow darker through the course of \u201cTil My Heart Stops,\u201d which opens wistful before developing urgency at the second verse, with the band providing typically strong instrumental support and harmonies behind Stokes. The driving, heavy \u201cTake\u201d carries a similar darkness about it, driven by Sinclair\u2019s constantly pushing bass line, with Pearce delivering an exclamation point of a solo.<\/p>\n

Things lighten again with \u201cRoundabout,\u201d all bright guitar and mandolin, backbeat and layered harmonies framing a celebration of a long-lasting friendship. At the bridge a sunburst of electric guitar falls back to a string quartet and reprise as Stokes chants the very essence of love: \u201cNever change \/ Unless you do \/ Unless you want to.\u201d In contrast, \u201cArk Of The Covenant\u201d opens with ominous chords before Deck\u2019s pulsing beat carries the song forward, Stokes\u2019 vocals beguiling even while surrounded with distortion.<\/p>\n

Closer \u201cBest Laid Plans\u201d returns to the heart of the matter for The Beths: a big, bouncy bass line behind guitars set to maximum jangle. It manages to be lively, lovely, and later nearly progressive as fuzzed-out bursts of electric guitar play off of rich, echoey harmonies, leading into a dreamy bridge with a spliced-in voiceover, before the guitar comes back strong, driving toward a satisfying climax.<\/p>\n

The thing is, all the specifics laid down above still don\u2019t come close to describing the listener\u2019s experience when this album comes flooding out of your speakers (or earbuds). There\u2019s a kind of magic in the offsetting balance among Stokes\u2019 powerful yet deeply vulnerable voice and words, Pearce\u2019s punchy, playful, sometimes skronky guitar work, Sinclair\u2019s clever, pumping basslines, and Deck\u2019s intense yet precise backbeats, spiced by the entire group\u2019s exuberant harmonies. It’s genuine musical alchemy, rendering a result greater than the sum of its parts.<\/p>\n

It also argues for The Beths being one of the best-named bands around, in that they are both a vehicle for a superb, distinctive singer-songwriter by the name of Beth, and a sterling performing unit whose innate chemistry and passion for the music they are making propels it to the next level over and over again. Expert In A Dying Field<\/i> suggested The Beths might be genuine power-pop savants; Straight Line Was A Lie<\/i> seals the deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":35363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10764],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-47258","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-beths","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47258"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}