New Zealand quartet The Beths have announced their fourth studio album, Straight Line Was A Lie, which lands in August. Alongside the album news, the band have released a new single and video for No Joy, the energetic track that explores emotional detachment and the contradictions of SSRI use.
Frontwoman Elizabeth Stokes says of the track, “It’s about anhedonia, which, paradoxically, was there both in the worst parts of depression, and then also when I was feeling pretty numb on my SSRI. It wasn’t that I was sad, I was feeling pretty good. It was just that I didn’t like the things that I liked. I wasn’t getting joy from them. It’s very literal.”
In support of the new album, The Beths will hit the UK and Ireland for a tour including a Manchester gig at the Albert Hall in September.
Written between tours and during a creative retreat in Los Angeles, Straight Line Was A Lie sees the band leaning into themes of cyclical growth and uncertainty. “Linear progression is an illusion,” Stokes explains. “What life really is is maintenance. But you can find meaning in the maintenance.”
In writing Straight Line Was A Lie, Stokes and Pearce broke down the typical Beths writing process. For inspiration, they read Stephen King’s On Writing, How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner, and Working by Robert A. Caro. Liz broke out a Remington typewriter (a birthday gift from Beths bassist Benjamin Sinclair) every morning for a month, writing 10 pages’ worth of material – mostly streams of consciousness. The resulting stack of paper was the starting point for the retreat in Los Angeles, where Stokes and Pearce also leaned heavily into LA’s singular creative atmosphere, went to shows, watched Criterion classics from Kurosawa, and listened to Drive-By Truckers, The Go-Go’s, and Olivia Rodrigo.
She adds, “Writing so much down forced me to look at stuff that I didn’t want to look at. In the past, in my memories. Things I normally don’t like to think about or I’m scared to revisit, I’m putting them down on paper and thinking about them, addressing them.”
When Are The Beths Headlining at Manchester’s Albert Hall?
The Beths will headline Albert Hall in Manchester on 20 September 2025 as part of their UK tour. Here are the confirmed UK and Ireland dates:
17 September – Dublin, Button Factory
18 September – Dublin, Button Factory
20 September – Manchester, Albert Hall
21 September – Glasgow, SWG3 TV Studio
22 September – Leeds, Project House
24 September – Bristol, O2 Academy
25 September – Birmingham, XOYO
26 September – London, Roundhouse
27 September – Brighton, CHAL
When Do Tickets Go on Sale for The Beths at Manchester’s Albert Hall?
Tickets for The Beths’ UK shows, including Manchester, are on sale now.
