Liars - Liars (Mute)
4/5
By: Charlie Potter
Q: What do the Liars know about Hip hop?
A: I don't know, but they've gone and made a hip hop album.
Sure, that's not strictly true. In fact, it's just not true, but there are definitely some beats phatter than you would have been expecting on more than a few of these numbers. In fact, you won't have been expecting many of the elements that make up 'Liars'. It sounds a lot like they've spent time post 'Drum's Not Dead' listening to their favourite old albums, and decided to experiment with trying to make a record that excites them as much.
One of the main changes to the sound is the use of keyboard, previously used only sparsely by the trio. There are keys all over this album, often emulating an almost 70's pop feel. Also unfamiliar territory for Liars, most of the tracks are quite simple in that they run thusly - verse, chorus, verse, chorus, break down, slightly different bit, pay off. A hell of a lot of pay off bits on this album. Now, this is not a song structure that I take to well, but it's Liars! Liars have earned my trust, you hear me? Earned it, and earned it a million times over. And what the hell do I know (about partying or anything else)? This is Liars were talking about. They're here to teach me, to teach us. So take the time, and you will learn something valuable.
Having simple song structure after all is not so new to them. The actual structures, if not the songs, on 'Drum's Not Dead' are also quite simple, but they of course worked very differently on that preceding record because it was such a particularly cohesive album, and as such your attention was much more on certain moments on the album, and the overall aesthetic, rather than the songs themselves.
That all said, there's no problem with the way these songs sit together. It's almost as if they've done the opposite to 'Drum...', as far from there being a concept, this album is so definitely, clearly about the individual songs, each one brilliantly provided with its own unique personality. Another thing this fluxing of sound brings to your attention is the band's use of discordant guitars. It's an element that has been there quite some time for Liars, but here they display how happy they are to use guitars purely as a rhythm instrument. Always a good thing.
The running order is strange in that after the big rock riff-fest of 'Plaster Casts of Everything', you're taken out of the clear, breathable air of pop rock only to be plunged back into the murky river of droned out bog water that defies any sort of reflection due to it's powerful, all immersing capacity to block out everything else, so much so that it takes some time to realise after you've noticed all the pop songs, that 'Liars' has a hell of a lot of spaced out murky drone on it. Of course, it's not a pop album after all. It was a trick. A lie, if you will.
Goodness, I can't wait to hear 'Clear Island' in a club. You could throw this song out into the desert with a gun with one bullet in and it would still survive, it's that strong. This surely has to be their next single - it is so simple, so ridiculously simple, it is a one riffer for Christ's sake, and I'm sure I've heard that riff before, but it doesn't matter because they are having so much fun playing it. And I'm having so much fun hearing it! This is a good example of the sort of 70's freak out vibe that runs out through 'Liars' (the band and the album), a statement backed up by the existence of the song 'Freak Out', in which all the sounds of the seventies are filtered through those of the nineties and pushed daringly in to tomorrow.
The magic of this album exists on the different layers it operates on. It pleases you, it is dense, but then there are some truly sparse bits... 'Liars' as a whole works really well being quite light and easy to listen to, but if you want to look for it, the meat is there. At times the pay offs go far beyond their logical conclusion to produce some really powerful, brave pieces of music, particularly at the end of 'Cycle Time', with all its controlled, escalating brilliance.
'Liars' is a real grower which goes far beyond the initial excitement provided by 'Plaster Casts of Everything'. It's all here. Nice one, boys.
Watch the stunning video to 'Plaster Casts of Everything' on Rockfeedback HERE.
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