When techniques replace melody.
There is something of a misconception that, to make a song interesting or sound original, new guitar chords or techniques are needed. To my mind there is very little wrong with using an acoustic guitar for nothing but major and minor basic chords and using the power of melody and words to add feeling and sell the song.
Yoav clearly doesn't agree. “Beautiful Lie” is a sparse and stark song whose guitaring is jarring and haunting, struck only once or twice each bar. The song itself is quite good, with aptly decent singing and intelligent lyrics but where it falls down is in its threadbare production, which thinks its more clever, intense or emotional than it is. The song comes across as sounding like it's far too long and drawn out or that the ideas contained with in are simply spread too thinly. So while its a somewhat compelling listen, it's not exactly a great one.