The Beths
Straight Line Was A Lie
Release Date: Aug 29, 2025
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock
Record label: Anti
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Album Review: Straight Line Was A Lie by The Beths
Mediocre, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
New Zealand indie pop band The Beths open their fourth album, Straight Line Was a Lie, with the record's title track. It is a zippy and impressively hooky tune, centering largely on an elliptical chorus about the cyclical nature of life's progressions: "I thought I was getting better / But I'm back to where I started / And the straight line was a circle / Yeah, the straight line was a lie." In addition to being a potent earworm, the track is a fitting thesis statement for one of indie's most consistent bands. Some artists are constantly reinventing with each new project.
Based on rating 1/10
The Beths’ latest album, Straight Line Was a Lie, is a record full of catchy hooks, big guitar riffs, and often introspective lyrics. The New Zealand quartet are at the top of their game. The melodies will grab the listener first, but Elizabeth Stokes’ inventive, thoughtful lyrics will stick around after multiple spins of the record. The title track kicks things off with a charmingly flubbed start, where a voice counts off, then halts, saying, “Sorry, I was thinking about something else”, then counts it off again, and the song starts for real.
Opinion: Excellent
New Zealand's The Beths have never been ones to stick to script, delivering an eclectic blend of indie pop/rock in the process. The Auckland four-piece return with their fourth studio album, ‘Straight Line Was A Lie’, their first for new label ANTI . It's a record built around an array of influences, some expected, others perhaps not so, like Olivia Rodrigo and the films of Kurosawa.
Opinion: Very Good
The shortest path between two points may be a straight line, but sometimes going in a straight line doesn't actually move you forward. This realization serves as the central theme on the Beths's fourth studio album, Straight Line Was a Lie, which was inspired, in part, by lead singer and songwriter Elisabeth Stokes's struggle to write the follow-up to the New Zealand band's critically acclaimed 2022 album Expert in a Dying Field. Stokes's songs have always been witty and self-aware, personal but relatable, and the lyrics on Straight Line Was a Lie offer even deeper, more vulnerable insights into her psyche.
'Straight Line Was A Lie'
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