The Beths have shared “Mother, Pray For Me,” the third single/video from their new album, Straight Line Was A Lie, out August 29th on ANTI-.

The band, which includes vocalist/guitarist Elizabeth Stokes, guitarist Jonathan Pearce, bassist Benjamin Sinclair, and drummer Tristan Deck. Their new single, follows last month’s single, “No Joy,”  “I cried the whole time writing it,” Stokes reflects. “It’s not really about my mother, it’s about me —what I hope our relationship is, what I think it is, what it maybe actually is, and what I can or can’t expect out of it.”

Stokes continues, “My mother is a first gen Indonesian immigrant, and very Catholic. I was born in Jakarta and we moved to Auckland when I was four. I think this song is me trying to understand my relationship with my mum, and her relationship to her faith and with her own mother. It was hard to write. We came up with a full band arrangement for the song, but in the end it seemed to feel the clearest with just me and the guitar. And a bit of organ.”

The path from The Beths’ Expert In A Dying Field to Straight Line Was A Lie was anything but straightforward. For the first time, Stokes was struggling to write new songs beyond fragments she’d recorded on her phone. She’d recently started taking an SSRI, which on one hand made her feel like she could “fix” everything broken in her life, from her mental and physical health to fraught family dynamics. At the same time, writing wasn’t coming as easily as it had before.

Straight Line Was A Lie, Stokes and Pearce broke down the typical Beths writing process, opening themselves up to a wave of creative input, with Stokes’ free-flowing writing routine proving to be therapeutic. Already a celebrated lyricist, Stokes has long impressed fans and critics with catchy, instant-classic turns of phrase that capture the personal and ladder up to the universal. But Stokes’ intentional deconstruction and rebuilding of her relationship to writing, however, has resulted in a complete renewal. Her songwriting has achieved startling new depths of insight and vulnerability.

The Beths Tour Dates:

Wed. Sept. 17 – Dublin, IE @ Button Factory ! [NEW SHOW]
Thu. Sept. 18 – Dublin, IE @ Button Factory ! [SOLD OUT]
Sat. Sept. 20 – Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall !
Sun. Sept. 21 – Glasgow, UK @ SWG3 TV Studio !
Mon. Sept. 22 – Leeds, UK @ Project House !
Wed. Sept. 24 – Bristol, UK @ O2 Academy !
Thu. Sept. 25 – Birmingham, UK @ XOYO !
Fri. Sept. 26 – London, UK @ Roundhouse !
Sat. Sept. 27 – Brighton, UK @ CHALK !
Mon. Sept. 29 – Tourcoing, FR @ Le Grand Mix !
Tue. Sept. 30 – Paris, FR @ Le Trabendo !
Wed. Oct. 1 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique !
Fri. Oct. 3 – Cologne, DE @ Kantine !
Sat. Oct. 4 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso !
Sun. Oct. 5 – Hamburg, DE @ Knust !
Tue. Oct. 7 – Stockholm, SE @ Slaktkyrkan !
Wed. Oct. 8 Oslo, NO @ Parkteatret Scene !
Thu. Oct. 9 – Copenhagen, DK @ Pumpehuset !
Sat. Oct. 11 – Berlin, DE @ Lido !
Sun. Oct. 12 – Munich, DE @ Strom !
Mon. Oct. 13 – Zurich, CH @ Plaza !
Wed. Oct. 15 – Barcelona, ES @ Razzmatazz 2 !
Thu. Oct. 16 – Madrid, ES @ Nazca !
Fri. Oct. 17 – Lisbon, PT @ LAV !
Thu. Oct. 30 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel*
Fri. Oct. 31 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse *
Sat. Nov 1 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl *
Mon. Nov. 3 – Dallas, TX @ The Studio At The Bomb Factory *
Tue. Nov. 4 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s *
Thu. Nov. 6 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren *
Fri. Nov. 7 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern * ^
Sat. Nov. 8 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore * [SOLD OUT]
Sun. Nov. 9 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore * [NEW SHOW]
Wed. Nov. 12 – Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades *
Fri. Nov. 14 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom *
Sat. Nov. 15 – Seattle, WA @ The Moore Theatre *
Sun. Nov. 16 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom *
Tue. Nov. 18 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall *
Wed. Nov. 19 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre *
Fri. Nov. 21 – Kansas City, MO @ The Truman *
Sat. Nov. 22 – St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre *
Sun. Nov. 23 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed (Indoor) * +
Tue. Nov 25 – Cleveland, OH @ Globe Iron *
Wed. Nov. 26 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Roxian Theatre *
Fri. Nov. 27 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall * [NEW SHOW]
Fri. Nov. 28 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall * [SOLD OUT]
Sat. Nov. 29 – Montreal, QC @ Beanfield Theatre *
Mon. Dec. 1 – Boston, MA @ Royale * [NEW SHOW]
Tue. Dec. 2 – Boston, MA @ Royale * [SOLD OUT]
Wed. Dec. 3 – Providence, RI @ Fete Music Hall *
Fri. Dec. 5 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount * #
Sat. Dec. 6 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer * [SOLD OUT]
Sun. Dec. 7 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer * [NEW SHOW]
Tue. Dec. 9 – Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club * [SOLD OUT]
Wed. Dec. 10 – Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club * [SOLD OUT]

! w/ Dateline
* w/ Phoebe Rings
^ w/ Bret McKenzie
+ w/ Squirrel Flower
# w/ illuminati hotties

Pre-order Straight Line Was A Lie by The Beths HERE