New Releases: The Beths

At a certain age, it's hard to get too excited about new music. While I'm always welcoming new music into my life, and absolutely dread becoming one of those "they just don't make good music any more" wet rags, the fact is I've got a few decades of accumulated favorites and it's hard to make room for too much new stuff, at least in regular rotation on the stereo.

Still, The Beths, an indie punkish-pop band out of New Zealand, are among my absolute favorite bands of the past decade, so I've been looking forward to Straight Line Was A Lie, their fourth LP. And it was worth the wait!

The album kicks off in familiar fashion, the lead-off title track the sort of crunchy, ridiculously catchy song we're used to, eclectic enough to avoid power pop conventions but still perfect mixtape fodder. After that, though, the album veers quite a bit--frontwoman Elizabeth Stokes has spoken up about some of her medical challenges in recent years, and you can see the darkness lurking in everything from the song titles ("No Joy," "Mother, Pray For Me") to a heavier emphasis on slowed-down, introspective tunes. Which doesn't mean the Beths don't still rock. "No Joy" in particular is relentless and jagged, some Buzzcocks filtered through Stokes' still amiable sweetness; while "Metal" and "Best Laid Plans" offer colorful upbeat jangle (the latter with some surprising 80s new wave flourishes), and "Roundabout" (nope, not a Yes cover) works wonders with some 80s college radio arpeggiated guitar licks. But they don't shy away from more laid back balladry, most effectively on the lovely "Mosquitoes."

Check it out on Bandcamp.

"Straight Line Was A Lie":

"No Joy":

"Roundabout":

New to the Beths? Here's a playlist!