Reliably good Auckland indie rockers the Beths have announced a new album. Straight Line Was A Lie, their follow-up to Expert In A Dying Field (one of the Best Albums Of 2022), arrives in August via their new label home ANTI-. It'll include last month's jangly single "Metal," as well as today's new one, which is called "No Joy."
Beths vocalist Liz Stokes wraps up the significance of the album's title in a press release, writing: "Linear progression is an illusion. What life really is is maintenance. But you can find meaning in the maintenance." She began writing Straight Line Was A Lie -- or at least began trying to -- after she started taking SSRIs, which made her day-to-day life a bit more tolerable but added an extra hurdle to songwriting.
Stokes gets right to that point on "No Joy," which envelops those classic Beths hooks with a lo-fi garage-y grit. "All my pleasures: guilty/ Clean slate looking filthy," she confesses in the opening lines, sounding way more irritated than depressed. Watch Frances Carter's video for "No Joy" and see the full album tracklist below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Straight Line Was A Lie"
02 "Mosquitoes"
03 "No Joy"
04 "Metal"
05 "Mother, Pray For Me"
06 "Til My Heart Stops"
07 "Take"
08 "Roundabout"
09 "Ark Of The Covenant"
10 "Best Laid Plans"
Straight Line Was A Lie is out 8/29 via ANTI-. Pre-order it here.
