The latest album from New Zealand indie-rock heroes The Beths, Straight Line Was A Lie, is a catchy, instant classic. Written in Los Angeles and self-recorded in the band's hometown of Auckland, Straight Line Was A Lie (their first release for ANTI-) follows 2022's critically acclaimed LP Expert in A Dying Field. Lead singer and songwriter Liz Stokes delves deeper into her psyche to address everything from detours 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' songwriting has reached a startling new depth of insight and vulnerability. Fans will agree that Straight Line Was A Lie is the most sharply observed, truthful, and poetic Beths project yet.