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Photo Credit: Frances Carter

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THE BETHS
release new album
STRAIGHT LINE WAS A LIE

via ANTI-

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“Jangle rock magic.” – Rolling Stone

“[On ‘No Joy,’] Stokes deadpans over playful post-punk guitars. SSRIs can take away emotions, sure, but it can’t take away bangers.” – Stereogum

“Liz Stokes is a master of the crunchy, three-minute earworm that smooshes happy and sad together into a delicious pop PB&J.” – Brooklyn Vegan

“[Liz Stokes] sings with humble honesty.” – The New York Times, on “Mother, Pray For Me”

“…a more insightful, introspective album than anything the band has released in the past—though Stokes’ clever lyrics are still front and centre.” – A.V. Club

“So far we’ve heard ‘Metal’ and ‘No Joy,’ both of which are sonically upbeat and lyrically conflicted. With…’Mother, Pray For Me,’ the Auckland indie rock outfit is going full tearjerker mode.” – Stereogum

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The Beths — the New Zealand-based quartet of vocalist/guitarist Elizabeth Stokes, guitarist Jonathan Pearce, bassist Benjamin Sinclair, and drummer Tristan Deck — release their new album, Straight Line Was A Lie, on ANTI-. The band celebrated earlier this week with sold out record release shows at Bowery Ballroom in New York City (with comedian Marcia Belsky) and Bob Baker Marionette Theatre in Los Angeles, where comedian Margaret Cho opened the evening. 

Next month, The Beths will embark on their world tour starting in the UK and Europe. Come October, they’ll headline some of their biggest venues to date in the U.S, including The Wiltern in Los Angeles, The Fillmore in San Francisco, The Salt Shed in Chicago, Brooklyn Paramount in New York City, Union Transfer in Philadelphia, 9:30 Club in Washington, DC and more. 

Purchase/stream STRAIGHT LINE WAS A LIE HERE

The path from The Beths’ critically celebrated and year-end-list-topping 2022 album Expert In A Dying Field to Straight Line Was A Lie was anything but straightforward. For the first time, Stokes was struggling to write new songs beyond fragments she’d recorded on her phone. She’d recently started taking an SSRI, which on one hand made her feel like she could “fix” everything broken in her life, from her mental and physical health to fraught family dynamics. At the same time, writing wasn’t coming as easily as it had before.

With Straight Line Was A Lie, Stokes and Pearce broke down the typical Beths writing process, opening themselves up to a wave of creative input, with Stokes’ free-flowing writing routine proving to be therapeutic. Already a celebrated lyricist, Stokes has long impressed fans and critics with catchy, instant-classic turns of phrase that capture the personal and ladder up to the universal. But Stokes’ intentional deconstruction and rebuilding of her relationship to writing, however, has resulted in a complete renewal. Her songwriting has achieved startling new depths of insight and vulnerability, making Straight Line Was A Lie the most sharply observant, truthful, and poetic Beths project to date.

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STRAIGHT LINE WAS A LIE
Track listing

1. Straight Line Was A Lie
2. Mosquitoes
3. No Joy
4. Metal
5. Mother, Pray For Me
6. Til My Heart Stops
7. Take
8. Roundabout
9. Ark Of The Covenant
10. Best Laid Plans 

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Follow THE BETHS
Website – Instagram – Facebook
Tik Tok – X

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AMNPLIFY – DB