Tall Tales

Liars
Liars
Mute, 2007
4 stars

Four albums in, this self-titled release sees Liars continuing on their quest to appear under every genre tag on your iPod - here they tick off 'industrial punk', 'prog' and even 'pop'. This is their most straight-forward record yet, though it does borrow elements from their more concept-driven past efforts, with the tribal drums of Drums Not Dead pounding away behind ghoulish They Were Wrong vocals (Angus' strained soprano would be funny if it wasn't so damn creepy) and wailing distorted guitars on much of the album, most notably on frightening first single Plaster Casts of Everything. The fuzzy garage drone of Leather Prowler and Freak Out are highlights, and Protection closes out the album beautifully with smokey organs and a tidy synth beat. Liars is wierd, wonderful, and probably their best album to date.

Artwork: B+

Published in mX, Thursday 6 September 2007.