#12 on the 2025 Bacon Top 31 — The Beths

January 20, 2026 by Royal Stuart in 2025, Top 31

Straight Line Was a Lie by The Beths

The New Zealand band The Beths has been a slow-burner for me. I haven’t heard their first two albums (despite critical acclaim), and while I did listen to their third album, 2022’s Expert in a Dying Field, I didn’t love it enough to place it in the Top 31 that year (although upon re-listening, I clearly made a mistake). I have even seen the band perform three times (2022 THING festival; opening for the Death Cab / Postal Service reunion tour that same year; and headlining their own tour this past November). It was that November performance, paired with the August release of they fantastic fourth album, Straight Line was a Lie that finally saw them break through my musical barrier into the “Bacon Review Says This is a Great Band” promised land.

The four-piece is made up of bassist Benjamin Sinclair, drummer Tristan Deck, guitarist and producer Jonathan Pearce, and principal songwriter, guitarist, and lead singer Liz Stokes. Pearce and Stokes have been romantic partners since shortly after the band formed back in 2014, where they all met at the University of Aukland, studying jazz.

You may notice that the Beths are not jazz. They fall squarely in the jangly indie rock mold. You can watch the videos for “No Joy” (and “The Beths Make: No Joy) and “Metal” (and “The Beths Make: Metal”) to get a sense of where the band typically falls. The band has release one more demo video, for the “Take.”

“Mother, Pray For Me” (the song featured above) is a departure from that norm, with Stokes performing the song solo, quietly. It is such a gorgeous song, all about Stokes’ relationship with her Indonesian mother (Stokes’ parents moved to Auckland when she was four). The poetic lyrics don’t paint a straightforward picture of their clearly complicated relationship, but the rawness of Stokes’ voice and the repetitive nature of the lone guitar lead you down a darkly emotional alley.

After the 2022 tour ended, Stokes apparently fell into a deep depression. On top of that, her body was failing her through undiagnosed Graves’ disease, which causes hyperthyroidism, leading to irritability, insomnia, and physical symptoms like heat sensitivity, shifts in one’s menstrual cycle, frequent bowel movements, and bulging eyes. Stokes took SSRIs for the depression, which helped greatly and pulled her back from the brink. And then figuring out the Graves’ disease, and then medically treating it, has led Stokes to a much better place overall.

Straight Line was a Lie chronicles the last three years for Stokes – the emotional depths explored on the album are likely what drew me in most (despite not having gone deep on the lyrics). The rawness comes through, via Stokes’ up-front voice and the beauty of the band playing behind her. At the show in November, the band has a playfulness that feels very Kiwi to me. It’s an approachable-ness that immediately draws you in, and makes you feel like the band is your new friend. When Stokes performed “Mother” solo in the middle of the set, we all held our breath. The collective exhale that came at the end of the song was full of elation. (You, too, can experience the majesty of this song and the band via their KEXP set from 2025.)

And that’s what Straight Line can do for you. On the surface, it’s all indie rock happiness. Underneath, there’s an earnestness that brings a level of emotion to the whole thing, it’s impossible not to love it. I recommend you check it out right now.

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#20 on the 2018 Bacon Top 31 — Death Cab for Cutie

January 12, 2019 by Royal Stuart

Thank You for Today by Death Cab for Cutie

Death Cab for Cutie, the little indie emo band that could, has been with me for nearly half my life. Their debut album, Something About Airplanes, came out shortly after I moved to Seattle, and connected with the early-20-something me like nothing else had before. And then their next three albums solidified their place in my brain, permanently engraved and ready to call upon when needed. There hasn’t always been love from me for the band — their four most recent albums, recorded for the much-bigger music label Atlantic, haven’t stood the same test of time (their last album to be featured on the Top 31, Codes and Keys, was #12 in 2011, but their utterly forgettable 2015 album Kintsugi was utterly forgotten).

And now Thank You for Today, the band’s tenth album (if you include their original demo album You Can Play These Songs with Chords), and their first without co-lead-songwriter Chris Walla (who departed the band just before the release of Kintsugi), somehow found its way into my go-to listens for the year. The beauty of lead singer/songwriter Ben Gibbard’s lyrics have always needed strong music to back them up (just listen to his offshoot album as Postal Service), and that’s what Walla brought to the table. Without him, the songs on this album feel transitory and ephemeral. Alternately, since I’m no longer in my 20s, maybe the dynamic range of my emotions is muted, or redirected. Gibbard continues to write about urbanism (see the above video for “Gold Rush,” all about Seattle’s insanity from the last ten years) and romanticism, but my emotional connections lie elsewhere.

I struggle to put my finger on why, exactly, given the above difficulties, but #20 is where this album gets placed. Not one of the best from the year, but better than the worst 11 out of 31 for the year. Ambiguous and inexplicable, just like the music within.

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21. Black Panther: The Album by Kendrick Lamar
22. Suspiria (Music for the Luca Guadagnino Film) by Thom Yorke
23. Merrie Land by The Good, the Bad & the Queen
24. Room 25 by Noname
25. WARM by Jeff Tweedy
26. God's Favorite Customer by Father John Misty
27. Vessel by Frankie Cosmos
28. For Ever by Jungle
29. Twerp Verse by Speedy Ortiz
30. Remain in Light by Angélique Kidjo
31. This One’s for the Dancer & This One’s for the Dancer’s Bouquet by Moonface

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February 11, 2013 by Royal Stuart

I’ve severely underestimated the popularity of The Postal Service. It’s been ten years since Give Up was released, and Sub Pop is releasing a 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of the seminal album. But apparently in that time the band has lingered in many heads or has moved into many, but either way, I’m pretty sure that even though this video only came out today, most everyone has already seen it.

Putting it here for archival purposes only. :)