Ready to Live a Lie

Last updated

Ready to Live a Lie
Sally Shapiro - Ready to Live a Lie.jpg
Studio album by
Released30 May 2025 (2025-05-30)
Studio
  • The Monastery Yard
  • The Southern Forest [1]
Length49:53
Label Italians Do It Better
Producer Johan Agebjörn
Sally Shapiro chronology
Sad Cities
(2022)
Ready to Live a Lie
(2025)
Singles from Ready to Live a Lie
  1. "The Other Days"
    Released: 11 March 2025
  2. "Did You Call Tonight"
    Released: 1 May 2025

Ready to Live a Lie is the fifth studio album by Swedish synthpop duo Sally Shapiro. [2] It was released on 30 May 2025, via Italians Do It Better. [3]

Contents

Background

Released three years after the duo's Sad Cities in 2022, Ready to Live a Lie is their second release on Italians Do It Better. [2] [4]

The album was mixed by the label's co-founder, Johnny Jewel, and Agebjörn of the duo. [5] Described as "the duo's darkest album yet", [6] it centers on the duo's vocalist, also known by the same name, and her struggle with personal issues involving relationship and loneliness. [6]

"The Other Days" was released as a single on 11 March 2025. [3] [2] It was followed by "Did You Call Tonight", the second single, on 1 May 2025. [7]

Reception

God Is in the TV Zine scored the album eight out of ten and called it "another Sally Shapiro release that is totally worthy of three quarters of an hour of anyone’s time." [8]

Paste remarked, "Compared to their previous albums, though, Ready to Live a Lie is more explicitly about how Sally—again: the character, not the vocalist—has been hurt and the lies she's endured, or told herself in order to soldier on," rating it 7.6 out of ten. [9]

MusicOMH gave the album a rating of three and a half stars, stating "Ready To Live a Lie may sound almost gossamer light at times, but there are enough moments on it to provide a melancholic soundtrack to the summer." [10]

Beats Per Minute assigned it a score of sixty-nine percent, referring to it as "a reluctant but delicate embrace of sadness and heartache." [11]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Beats Per Minute 69% [11]
MusicOMH Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [10]
Paste 7.6/10 [9]
God Is in the TV 8/10 [8]

Track listing

Ready to Live a Lie track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."The Other Days"
4:12
2."Hard to Love"4:51
3."Rent"5:37
4."Purple Colored Sky"Agebjörn4:48
5."Happier Somewhere Else"Agebjörn3:46
6."Guarding Shell"Agebjörn5:20
7."Hospital"Gunnarsson3:03
8."Did You Call Tonight"
4:40
9."Oh Carrie"
  • Agebjörn
  • Gunnarson
3:21
10."He's Not You"
  • Agebjörn
  • Gunnarson
4:13
11."Rain"
  • Agebjörn
  • Miranda Gjerstad
5:02
Total length:49:53
Physical edition bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
12."Casablanca Nights"
4:01
13."Le Noir Et Le Blanc Sur Le Piano"
  • Gunnarson
  • Agebjörn
  • Myleen Offrell
  • Maria Sandström
4:11
14."Forget About You" (Johnny Jewel's Amnesia Rework)
  • Agebjörn
  • Gunnarson
  • Johnny Jewel
4:21
15."The Best Thing" Austin Garrick 3:50

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. [1]

Sally Shapiro

Additional contributors

References

  1. 1 2 Ready to Live a Lie (Media notes). Sally Shapiro. Italians Do It Better. 30 May 2025.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  2. 1 2 3 Murray, Robin (11 March 2025). "Sally Shapiro Announce New LP Ready To Live a Lie". Clash . Retrieved 13 June 2025.
  3. 1 2 Breihan, Tom (11 March 2025). "Sally Shapiro Announce New Album Ready To Live A Lie: Hear "The Other Days"". Stereogum . Retrieved 13 June 2025.
  4. Pearis, Bill (11 March 2025). "Sally Shapiro announce new album, share "The Other Days"". BrooklynVegan . Retrieved 13 June 2025.
  5. Nasatir, Issa (14 March 2025). "Sally Shapiro Announce New Album, Share Video for New Song "The Other Days"". Under the Radar . Retrieved 13 June 2025.
  6. 1 2 Kelly, Tyler (11 March 2025). "Sally Shapiro announce their fifth studio album, Ready To Live A Lie". The Line of Best Fit . Retrieved 13 June 2025.
  7. Kelly, Tyler (1 May 2025). "Sally Shapiro share new single, "Did You Call Tonight"". The Line of Best Fit . Retrieved 13 June 2025.
  8. 1 2 Page, Andy (4 June 2025). "Sally Shapiro - Ready To Live A Lie (Italians Do It Better) - God Is In The TV" . Retrieved 14 June 2025.
  9. 1 2 Martin, Clare (30 May 2025). "Sally Shapiro's Romantically Melancholic Synth-Pop Will Have You Ready to Live a Lie". Paste . Retrieved 13 June 2025.
  10. 1 2 Murphy, John (29 May 2025). "Sally Shapiro – Ready To Live a Lie". MusicOMH . Retrieved 13 June 2025.
  11. 1 2 Finlayson, Ray (10 June 2025). "Album Review: Sally Shapiro – Ready To Live A Lie". Beats Per Minute . Retrieved 13 June 2025.