"When all you hear is fear and lies"

The first time I heard it (When You Believe by Leon Jackson), my grammar instinct screamed "When all you hear are fear and lies." But then again, I feel that the phrase "all you hear are" sounds a little odd, "all you hear is" sounds perfectly fine to me. But maybe I am wrong.

Would you use is or are in such a phrase?

Solution 1:

"All" here actually means "The only thing," as in:

The only thing you hear is fear and lies.

So, for me, the original line is better.

*All is singular when used as the subject with a linking verb or when it means the only thing or everything: All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth; all we found was candy wrappers and soda cans.

Solution 2:

The words that precede the verb determine its form, not the words that follow it, so we can disregard the fact that fear and lies is plural. The relevant question is whether all is singular or plural. If it’s singular, the verb is is. If it’s plural, the verb is are. In other contexts there would be no hesitation over making it singular: All I know is that . . ., All that glitters is not gold. There seem to be no grounds for making an exception here, so When all you hear is fear and lies seems above reproach.