You Can't Pray a Lie

1989 studio album by Laughing Hyenas

Studio album by

Laughing Hyenas

Released

March 1989 (1989-03)

Recorded

October 1988 (1988-10)

Studio

Smart Studios, Madison, WI^[1]

Genre

Noise Rock, hardcore punk, post-hardcore, punk blues, garage punk

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
5.	"Sister"	4:20
6.	"Desolate Son"	4:41
7.	"Dedications to the One I Love"	4:42
8.	"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

^ Coombe, Doug. "An oral history of the Laughing Hyenas, one of the great unsung Detroit rock bands". Detroit Metro Times.
^ "You Can't Pray a Lie". Touch and Go. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
^ Carlson, Matt. "You Can't Pray a Lie". Allmusic. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
^ ^a ^b MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1999. pp. 660–661.
^ "Laughing Hyenas | Biography & History". AllMusic.
^ ^a ^b Christe, Ian; Robbins, Ira (2007). "Laughing Hyenas". Trouser Press. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
^ Earles, Andrew (September 15, 2014). Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1996. Voyageur Press. ISBN 9780760346488 – via Google Books.
^ You Can't Pray a Lie (sleeve). Laughing Hyenas. Chicago, Illinois: Touch and Go Records. 1989.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)