The Beths: 2025
The Beths' Elizabeth Stokes and Jonathan Pearce (photo by Gus Philippas for FUV)
Auckland's The Beths first visited WFUV in 2019 for a session while on tour for their 2018 debut album, the mordantly-titled Future Me Hates Me. Since that Studio A debut, Elizabeth Stokes, Jonathan Pearce, Benjamin Sinclair and Tristan Deck have released three more albums, skating through the pandemic and beyond with their effervescent power pop.
This year's Straight Line Was a Lie is The Beths first release for the ANTI- label and it deals directly with depression — or more concisely, emerging from melancholia with the assistance of medication. Stokes is a wise, perceptive lyricist, circling around emotional upheavals with a wary sigh, a stinging riposte, or a wistful aside.
On this album, via songs like "Mosquitos" or "Ark of the Covenant," she revisits raw feelings from a different angle; against the backdrop of jangling beauty, there's some sorrow but a matter-of-fact satisfaction too. "I know I'm a collaboration," Stokes sings on "Metal," which she and Pearce played in Studio A. "Bacteria, carbon and light."
The Beths have had a roller coaster year (as Stokes outlined in What I'm Grateful For: 2025, their gear was stolen in France when on tour), but they're always a delight to have at FUV. Earlier this summer, Stokes and Pearce came by to play a trio of songs in Studio A: "No Joy," "Mosquitos," and "Metal."
[Recorded: 9/3/25; Engineered by Jim O'Hara with Erin Merriman and Nadia Garriga. Videographers: Therese Burgo Nikki Phillips, Alena Godas, Lily Crean and Adithi Vimalanathan.]
