They can’t disguise their sweet little lies, and yet…
[Video]
[4.50]
Al Varela: I find this song to be a really fascinating contrast to Zach’s previous female duet hit. While “I Remember Everything” was more of a fraught relationship where the lies felt more tolerated for the sake of both of their loneliness, in “Lies”, it feels like the one thing keeping this relationship afloat. Both Zach and Lana know whatever was left of this relationship died long ago, but there’s so much to lose if they let it go. Zach’s warbling and hollering is full of desperation, while Lana’s defeated sigh signals resignation. This isn’t good for either of them, but the thought of being alone terrifies them both, so they hold on. There’s less romanticism than there was in “I Remember Everything”, which makes that human need to keep alive a love that isn’t there all the more tragic. Zach and Lana are a fantastic pair together, as they both have years of hurt that ultimately leads to the same need. But what good is that when all you can hang onto is lies?
[9]
David Allun Jones: Not as successful a duet as the rugged-meets-sweet recipe that made Zach and Kacey’s “I Remember Everything” so compelling, the comparably meh Zach/Lana team-up “Lies” feels like an early draft in need of a few more workshops. Two-thirds in, the arrangement (his lonesome guitar, her piano-and-strings old Hollywood grandeur) finally figures out a solid way to mesh their universes and there’s merely a skeleton of a good story in its two-person play of damaged lovers gaslighting themselves and each other in trying to keep aflame an obviously dead-end union. As-is though, it seems like it would be more successful as dual solo entries in which both artists would be given the space to deepen the lyrical details their respective pens have better grasped in the past. Still not quite sold on the whole “Lana Goes Country” plans, but I’m intrigued enough to want to hear this pairing again on something else.
[5]
Nortey Dowuona: Zach Bryan reminds me of many men I have met, including myself. In his music he is not truly telling the truth, but telling the tale of his truth that he can bear, that paints him in the best, most flattering light, either as an flawed avenging angel or a wretched fool who loves hard. Both of which allow him to hide from himself and his own culpability. Lana del Rey does the same, but in her dulled, thin croak there is at least the hint that she is letting you in on the joke, that she is willing to cop to it, even though she clearly is not. Above the warm, lush piano played by the deeply underrated Brooke Waggoner, Bryan and del Rey play it straight and sincere, keeping us within their warm little cozy hut of lies and deceit, allowing them to play the roles of lovelorn fool and sympathetic harlot, slipping out of the difficulty of facing the truths they cannot admit to themselves: they desire power, the power of control, the power of victimhood. They trade a slice of each to entertain us, then they stop, sliding each slice back to each other and devouring it with glee, knowing the lie has been believed and we will refuse to face it. What is the alternative? To tell the truth? Please.
[0]
Ashton Arbus: Kind of lesser than the sum of its parts. Both Lana Del Rey and Zach Bryan are artists that have plenty of good duets, but both of them work best when their song partners are used more as added texture for them rather than as two people singing to each other. “Lies” has good verses, but once the chorus hits it sounds like the two of them stepping on each others’ toes over and over because they both tried to lead.
[6]
TA Inskeep: So Del Rey brought Bryan down to her boring level, then.
[3]
Alfred Soto: Lana Del Rey and Zach Bryan collaborating is like imagining Joan Crawford and John Garfield in a movie — and they were! Affected glamour meets determined proletarian-coding. It works, though. Bryan’s ardor has no effect on Del Rey’s bloodlessness, which is the point: a couple that shouldn’t stick together insists on it.
[8]
Callie Petch: “It’s a new Zach Bryan song.”
That’s good!
“It’s a piano ballad.”
That’s bad.
“But it’s a duet…”
That’s good!
“…with 2026 Lana Del Rey.”
That’s bad.
“It’s about a couple who know their relationship is bad for each other yet they can’t quit it regardless.”
That’s good!
“The most interesting bit is when they outright pull the line you’re thinking of from Fleetwood Mac’s “Little Lies” with the same melodic cadence.”
That’s bad.
“It’s structured like a conversation that necessitates both artists stay on-topic and feel like they’re interacting with each other.”
That’s good!
“Zach and Lana don’t have much chemistry with each other and their harmonies, particularly on the bridge, are non-existent.”
That’s bad.
“There’s a cinematic string orchestration straight from the early-00s Radio 2 playlist egged all over the track.”
…
“…that’s bad.”
Can I go now?
[4]
James M Errington: I’m honestly not sure whether the song itself is any good, at best it seems kind of inoffensive. The only thing I can really pay attention to is how Zach Bryan’s voice is such a rancid combination of sad wickle puppy and gruff outdoorsman, just the most insulting attempt to imbue a song with Feelings by doing sad little cracks and warbles like he’s pretending to be on the verge of tears. I’m usually fine with Lana but she does nothing to rescue things.
[1]