laid on the line

barbed incisive pertinent sarcastic sharp telling trenchant

cutting insinuating keen

accurate acid acute boiled down calling a spade a spade in a nutshell legit meaty on the button on the nose pregnant right to it short-and-sweet tart

gentle kind nice stupid

calming mild soothing

candid forthright genuine sincere truthful unequivocal

aboveboard barefaced direct frank guileless honorable just level like it is mellow open outspoken plain plain-dealing pretenseless square-shooting straight straight-arrow talking turkey unconcealed undisguised undissembled undissembling unvarnished up front upright upstanding veracious

devious dishonest insincere lying tricky untruthful

complicated deceitful difficult hard indirect involved

candidly

bluntly dead level directly forthrightly freely from the hip in truth level on the level on the line openly plainly straight straight-out straightforwardly without reserve

deviously dishonestly insincerely secretively