Faith is a weird thing. Not that sort of faith – the bit where some invisible person that doesn’t actually exist makes you feel guilty about everything – but faith as in the belief that tomorrow will still arrive, the sun will come up and you’ll still be around to see it.
From New Zealand (Not that you’d be able to guess, minor quibble #1) The Beths gained profile in what is a crowded pool when their indie punk gathered much critical attention with 2022’s Expert In A Dying Field, earning them a domestic number one and the patronage of none other than Barack Obama.
One of the band’s differentiating qualities was the sometimes intimately biographical nature of songs written by singer Elizabeth Stokes. These experiences inform Straight Line Was A Lie, a title that refers to the somewhat pointless belief that life has some distant transformative way point that always needs to be ventured for.
Stokes evidently saw no need to retreat from sharing, the affecting ballad Mother, Pray For Me applying the microscope unflinchingly, but elsewhere lovers of bright choppy guitars will find their own solace in the title track, Metal and Take.
This dovetails into minor quibble #2 – often what can be potentially fascinating subject matter is boxed in by syrupy harmonies and rote guitar chug. It’s for that reason that the hardcore-dabbling No Joy and the dance floor orientated Best Laid Plans are the tunes here that will have you coming back – because as the title suggests, getting what you expect is never that easy.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 