12/20/2007
Top 10 Albums Of 2007: No. 2, Liars - Liars
The only consistent thing in The Liars' discography is change. The band has mutated it's sound with every new album since their 2001 post-punk revival debut, They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top. Three years later, they hopped in their demon bus and left that genre in the dust by releasing an album that evoked themes of witchcraft and made use of primitive electronics, a la Silver Apples. Despite the sheer awesomeness of that album, the band ditched the electronics and ventured into even darker territory by bringing back the traditional instruments to create the freaky and meditative tribal album, Drums Not Dead.
On this year's self-titled album, they continued with their experimental leanings, but brought back the pop-song structure. Praise Satan for this, because along with heavier, quasi-metal guitar sounds, it's what makes it their best album to date. "Cycle Time" and "Sailing To Byzantium" are spellbinding, evil concoctions that recall the best of King Crimson's early efforts, while "Leather Prowler" hearkens back to the experimentation of the band's earlier albums, with greater success. "Plaster Casts of Everything" and "Clear Island" are both urgent and brutal pieces of neo-psychedelia. The former is a rush of everything you love about Black Sabbath, filtered through the visceral, haunting guise of 21st century paranoia. Similarly, the latter is also a heavy track, less suffocating but more ominous with desperate chants, hip-hop-esque mini-verses, pounding drums and chainsaw style guitars.
By drawing from all of their past experiments and re-injecting them with pop sensibilities, Liars may be telling us that they have created their ultimate and definitive sound. But, hey, with a name and discography like theirs, can they really be trusted?
Do yourself a favor and pick up this fantastic album, perhaps a lie detector as well.
MP3
Download 'Liars - Clear Island'2:40 | 4.26MB
Posted by Michael on 12/20/2007 12:41 PM in Experimental, Neo-Psychedelic, Top 10 Albums Of 2007
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