New Zealand indie rock heroes The Beths' latest album Straight Line Was A Lie (IEX) Blue is a catchy, instant classic out on August 29, 2025. Written in Los Angeles and self-recorded in the band's hometown of Auckland, the record follows 2022's critically celebrated LP Expert In A Dying Field and delves deeper into lead singer and songwriter Liz Stokes's psyche to address everything from roundabout progress to physical and mental health challenges and fraught family dynamics. Inspired by The Go-Go's, Olivia Rodrigo, filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and Stephen King's On Writing, Stokes's songwriting has reached new depths of insight and vulnerability. Fans will agree that Straight Line Was A Lie is the band's most sharply observant, truthful and poetic project to date.
Tracklist:
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