Straight Line Was a Lie

After releasing Expert in a Dying Field (2022) -- the hooky indie rockers third album and most melancholy endeavor yet -- the Beths Elizabeth Stokes was having trouble writing new songs. Likely exacerbated by, if not caused by, having recently started on an SSRI, she and bandmate Jonathan Pearce, whos produced all their albums, delved into the writing process with books on both writing and tackling projects (including Stephen Kings enduring advice book, On Writing). Additionally, they stimulated creativity by attending shows, watching arthouse films, and so on. For a month, Stokes started every morning by hammering out ten pages of stream-of-consciousness prose on a Remington typewriter. The resulting album, Straight Line Was a Lie, features her most personal and confessional material yet, and while her lyrics have always been self-depreciating and full of obstacles, here they struggle with overwhelm. Still offering some of the Beths familiar humor, however, the album begins with a false start before launching into "Straight Line Was a Lie," a hooky and lively, partly group-sung effort that nevertheless features lines such as "I thought I was getting better/But Im back to where I started." Other punchy tracks include, perhaps ironically, the distortion-heavy "No Joy," a song explicitly about Stokes experiences with being zoned out on antidepressants ("Anhedonic on the daily/Wanna feel but I am failing"). Most of the songs here, though, tend toward the midtempo and reflective, ranging from the surprisingly post-punky "Take" to the diffident "Mother, Pray for Me," a song stripped down to plucked guitar and organ, about Stokes complicated and somewhat distant relationship with her mother. Despite its frequently overcast tone, Straight Line Was a Lie is, in typical Beths fashion, dependably catchy and sweetly harmonic. The record closes on the funky rocker "Best Laid Plans," whose bubbly bongos and mirroring syncopated guitar rhythms uplift lyrics about powering through another Friday. ~ Marcy Donelson

ニュージーランドを拠点に活動する大注目の4人組ギター・ポップ・バンドが、アンタイに移籍してニュー・アルバムをリリース! 親しみやすいジャングリーな演奏にオルタナやポスト・パンクの感性を絡め、共感性の高そうなポップ・チューンとして響かせている。ここからさらに飛躍していきそうな予感が凄くする力作だ。
bounce (C)大原かおり