You Can't Pray a Lie

You Can't Pray a Lie
Studio album by Laughing Hyenas
Released	March 1989 (1989-03)
Recorded	October 1988 (1988-10)
Studio	Smart, Madison, WI [1]
Genre	Punk, grunge
Length	31:13
Label	Touch and Go [2]
Producer	Laughing Hyenas, Butch Vig
Laughing Hyenas chronology
Come Down to the Merry Go Round (1987) You Can't Pray a Lie (1989) Life of Crime (1990)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide	[4]

You Can't Pray a Lie is the debut studio album of American garage rock band Laughing Hyenas. ^[5] It was released in 1989 by Touch and Go Records. ^[6] It was reissued in 1992 accompanied with Life of Crime.

Critical reception

Trouser Press praised Larissa Strickland's guitar playing. ^[6] MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide called the album "a perfect coalescing of the violence of punk and the guitar stomp of the coming grunge sound." ^[4] Andrew Earles, in Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1996, wrote that "many albums throughout rock-and-roll's history could carry the additional signifier 'hard-living set to music,' but few are as convincing as the albums made by Laughing Hyenas." ^[7]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Laughing Hyenas.

Side one

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Love's My Only Crime"	3:20
2.	"Seven Come Eleven"	2:18
3.	"Black Eyed Susan"	2:40
4.	"Lullaby and Goodnight"	4:43

Side two

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Sister"	4:20
2.	"Desolate Son"	4:41
3.	"Dedications to the One I Love"	4:42
4.	"New Gospel"	4:25

Personnel

Adapted from the You Can't Pray a Lie liner notes. ^[8]

Laughing Hyenas

• John Brannon  – lead vocals, trumpet
• Jim Kimball  – drums
• Kevin Strickland – bass guitar
• Larissa Strickland – guitar

Production and additional personnel

• Laughing Hyenas – production
• Butch Vig  – production, engineering, recording

Release history

Region	Date	Label	Format	Catalog
United States	1989	Touch and Go	LP	TG38

References

1. Coombe, Doug. "An oral history of the Laughing Hyenas, one of the great unsung Detroit rock bands". Detroit Metro Times.
2. "You Can't Pray a Lie". Touch and Go. Retrieved November 1, 2020.
3. Carlson, Matt. "You Can't Pray a Lie". Allmusic. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
4. MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1999. pp. 660–661.
5. "Laughing Hyenas | Biography & History". AllMusic.
6. Christe, Ian; Robbins, Ira (2007). "Laughing Hyenas". Trouser Press . Retrieved July 8, 2015.
7. Earles, Andrew (September 15, 2014). Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1996. Voyageur Press. ISBN   9780760346488 – via Google Books.
8. You Can't Pray a Lie (sleeve). Laughing Hyenas. Chicago, Illinois: Touch and Go Records. 1989.

External links

• You Can't Pray A Lie at Discogs (list of releases)