Customer Reviews

They Were Wrong So We Drowned

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This latest Liars full-length was given a one-star review by a long running, well respected music magazine. Now I gotta say, I'm really into the album, I love the sinister overtones, and i think the discordant, bizarre but fiendishly catchy single 'There's Always Room on the Broom' is a stroke of genius. But then i can understand why people wouldn't like it. It's might difficult and it's a might spooked. But, you know, i thought that being such 'long running, well respected music magazine' they might chisel some classic well honed criticism. Ah alas no... They've just parroted that sneaky pre-release rumour that the album was unlistenable. They describe the album as an 'electronic noise collage'. No it isn't! That's the kind of high and narrow-minded opinion that my mum might expound from the top of the stairs. Have you heard early royal trux? Have you listened to the Liars? And they dismiss it as being 'rooted in the what-the-f**k? tradition of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music' do they? If anything it's a "f**k you!" to those tired old institutions who sneer when a band is prepared to scissor their reputation by pursuing their muse into choppy waters. So sail on brave liars, if only there were more bands with your unbridled artistic ambition...

As much as I love the current wave of dance punk bands that blend punk, funk, and disco, I have to admit that many of them are little more than imitators of classic post punk bands. The genre is in danger of becoming stale, and Liars, one of the most intriguing dance punk bands to emerge in the last few years, are ahead of the game. While their first album was all funk riffs and danceable beats, albeit with a menacing edge that made some songs borderline amelodic, this next one leaves the genre behind. This shouldn't be a surprise for anyone who has followed their career. The 25 minute plus loop at the end of the first album is a statement on the redundacy of most dance punk(...).The Fins to Make Us More Fishlike EP practically declared their departure with a bored reworking of Grown Men Don't Fall In the River Just Like That and two chaotic songs that would be a stretch to call danceable.

They Were Wrong, So We Drowned is hard to classify. Noise rock is the best I can come up with. It's a concept album about witches that switches between the point of view of accused witches and the angry townsfolk who persecute them. Guitars rarely sound like guitars, and the atmosphere is created by a good deal of experimenting with variouys instruments and effects. What anchors the album is Angus Andrews, who shows a great range that makes the album interesting even when the instrumentation gets too pretentious. The first single, There's Always Room on the Broom and the song They Don't Want Your Corn, They Want Your Kids both have a fragmented dance punk feel that still stays within the creepy atmosphere of the album. The album's climax, Hold Hands and It Will Happen Anyway, is driven by tribal rythyms and discordant guitar that build then release all the tension built up by the earlier songs. In order to truly appreciate this album, it must be listened to straight through at least a few times. It's really a unique, frightening experience.

CAVEAT: I am a music bigot.

The Liars are part of the return to New Wave. They have always had a bit of the Gang of Four/PiL panache emanating from their glands. Throw in some slightly more obscure influences like ESG, who the Liars copied whole cloth on one track from 'They Threw Us...,' and you have the ingredients for this particular cake. Well, 'They Were Wrong...' is not unlistenable, unintelligible, or unprecedented. In fact, I am not surprised by it in any way (neither am I surprised that stodgy ole Rolling Stone Magazine panned these recordings). I will admit that I would have been quite satisfied with an album that followed the formula of 'They Threw Us...' as closely as the latest Strokes mimics their first LP. I am not disappointed in the departure made by the Liars as it is one of degree and, more importantly, it is almost predictable. These guys are art punks with a dance sensibility. Their heroes are Gang of Four, PiL, This Heat, Wire, The Pop Group, and the like (this is an educated guess based on their output). With the exception of GoF, all of these bands experimented widely with their sound on their first few records, especially Wire and PiL. 'They Were Wrong...' follows that tradition religiously. This sophomore effort is very closely aligned with PiL's still amazing third full length release, 'The Flowers of Romance,' which was released by a Warner Brothers label that would run screaming from such recordings in today's far less adventurous majors scene. 'They Were Wrong...' cribs both beats and the general what have you of 'Flowers...' Mix in a bit of the cut-and-paste derring do of This Heat and 'They Were Wrong...' becomes transparent, almost a given. I happen to adore and deeply respect the work of the bands that have provided the Liars with their philosophico-artistic template.I also really like the Liars...

So why four stars? Well, for one, there are not enough actual songs on the record and the soundscape tracks are not particularly interesting or experimental. By another name, 'filler.' Another problem lies in the dearth of guitar. See the above noted comparisons with 'Flowers of Romance' and This Heat. Other than that, this album is a strong effort when allowed to stand on its own in the spaces it seeks out. The Liars rightfully want to avoid becoming part of the entertainment complex that simply sweats to put out product that has a ready audience bleeding mommy and daddy's money. They want to entertain and challenge both the audience and themselves. 'They Were Wrong...' definitely casts its lot with the idea that these types of subterranean cultural strains should keep at least on eye on the ineffable shadows from which they derive. I appreciate that kind of principled independence.

About the music itself? Fuzzed keys, deconstructed and repetitive beats, some of which are danceable, playfully vague lyrics. Listen for yourself, the tunes will speak in their own right and make all necessary comments.

When Liars hit the music scene in 2001, the name of their album and song titles weren't the only thing that seemed a little peculiar to everyone. This was a band that had chewed up the mass of their influences and spit them out in an entirely new fashion. With only one record, they created a buzz that even they couldn't get rid of if they wanted to. Upon arrival of their unique debut release, They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top, critics and fans alike were fast to realize Liars was stylistically similar to a lot of the other NYC-based bands revitalizing the late 70's/early 80's post-punk dance scene. Even so, while they were immediately pigeonholed into this category, they were able to add an edgy, almost avant-garde, boldness that the others were simply not exploring.

The same can also be said for They Were Wrong, So We Drowned. The only thing here that's similar to their debut is that the song titles and album name are still very unique (both albums start with the word `they'). With that aside, the primary thing you'll discover once you listen to this album is that things have drastically changed - for the better. The envelope has been moved in an entirely new direction, and the band wouldn't have it any other way. Liars take great pride in breaking out of the genre-defining boxes they're thrown in. In the same way Radiohead took an impeccable album like OK Computer and stepped into unfamiliar territory with Kid A, Liars have sidestepped the majority of their familiar styles and broken free towards new explorations. Now, I won't go so far as to say They Were Wrong sounds like Kid A, but it definitely gives me the same feelings I had the first time I heard that album.

There's a detached coldness that emanates in They Were Wrong. Perhaps it's due to the fact that a type of German witchcraft, known as Walpurgisnacht, inspired the album. Whatever the reason, the album is very dense, imaginative, and executed with chaotic precision. "Broken Witch" begins with disconnected electronics and a drum machine that has you immediately finding this record more electronic than it's predecessors. In many cases, the drums have been played live, recorded, and then manipulated to assist in this concept. "There's Always Room on the Broom" is a distorted beauty with its heavy microphone feedback and high-pitched vocals. The best track, "We Fenced Other Houses with the Bones of Our Own," is easily the most sinuous moment of the album, and simply impossible not to compare to the same approach Radiohead took on Kid A. The instrumental "Read the Book That Wrote Itself" is a collection of eerie keyboard sounds with ritualistic drumming and pencil writing. As with They Threw Us All In a Trench, the longest song, "Flow My Tears the Spider Said" is saved until the end of the album. Although I really tried to stay away from this comparison, I can't help but think it's strikingly similar in some ways to The Beatles "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." It's then slowly faded away to the sounds of birds and minimal instrumentation.

They Were Wrong, So We Drowned is an incredibly tight album, and it's surely going to be one of the year's first greatly admired albums. Each song is independent to the others, yet collectively this album is very cohesive. Since the songs all bare similarities in visual terms, I guess you could say it's a concept album of sorts. If breaking free from their own mold is this band's forte, then I imagine we are going to hear quite an array of sounds in future releases. One thing you'll always be assured of is that Liars show up to give a great and lasting impression whenever they enter the studio. They prove once again that even with their rotation of musicians, they are capable of taking the scene by the hair and utilizing their talents in every way possible to remain one of the most exciting bands around.

I am a huge sceptic these days. It really takes alot to wake me up and make me take notice anymore. Jaded? Bored with rock? Depressed at the state of music in general? Yes, that's me. Some will say, "Then why review anything Mr. Bummer?" I'll tell you why...This record is brilliant. Comparisons to PIL are ridiculous in my mind. And I don't lump the Liars in with the second generation new wave crap that's been flowing the last few years. Starting with this record (I actually didn't like their earlier stuff, so I consider this their first fully realized record), the Liars have become one of the elites in my book. I have heard the new one, due out in February '06, and it builds on this one even more. They have the inspiration and vitality of early Sonic Youth, without sounding derivative of anyone in particular. Come to this record with an open mind. Don't over-analyze it or compare it to some stuff from the eighties (even though I just did)...Just take them for what they are: three guys obviously having fun making some dark, visceral, beautiful music.

All the former fans of Liars and the MTVindie-loving music reviewers need to stop whining about this brilliant release by Liars. This album is an amazing combination of ritualim dissonance and pure creepiness, that makes for an edge-of-your-seat listen.

I recently had bought the Liars' first album and enjoyed it quite a bit. A friend of mine informed me that they were playing near us, so we went to see it. Mind you I had heard none of the new material and thus expected the old. After seeing the show and the the way the frontman carries on onstage I have no doubt in my mind that this album/work/music is by far the best they have done. Some people say they don't understand it, or that it's just noise. Go see them live. Then you'll get it. Promise.

For this album the Liars ditched the funky, no wave/Gang of Four songs and go for a real experimental sound. This rocks hard but its hard to explain, its influences are all over the place: Sonic Youth, Public Image Limited, Can and lo fi electronica. Ditching the rhythm section was the best thing the Liars ever did. I heard the first album didn't have much use for it, saw them live and was blown away. I figured there was no way that they would live up to that show but this cd is the equal to it. Up there with Oneida's Each One Teach One as the best of the new wave/no wave sound.

i went into this with caution: the sound clips sounded so bad, and the single "there's always room on the broom" certainly didn't sound like that band on "they threw us...". besides, that split with oneida was suggesting that things weren't going in the proper direction. but i got the record anyhow, just for kicks. i listened to it right away, all the way through. i found some good parts here and there, recognised some stuff from the live show, but was not digging it. but i kept being drawn to it. like a moth to a flame, as it were. and the record started rocking me. HARD! this is definately one of those records that you have to "get" to enjoy, and if you "get" it, you will love it. for the rest of you, there's always the used bin at the local record shop (if there are still any of those left these days).

They Were Wrong, So We Drowned has already garnered decidely mixed reactions, with two of the biggest mainstream music publications (Spin and Rolling Stone) trashing the album rather harshly while other zines and sites have given the album much praise. This might be an album you either love or hate, but for all the hoopla, They Were Wrong is not as terribly inaccessible as Spin or RS would have you believe. Yes, it doesn't sound much like the band's excellent debut They Threw Us In A Trench record, but it's still unmistakeably the Liars and displays the same uncompromised creativity the band is known for. I mean, really, if "Pillars Were Hollow And Filled With Candy" from the Fins That Make Us More Fish-Like EP didn't tip you off that the next Liars record would be different, then maybe you weren't paying enough attention. Whether or not the bad mainstream press is reflective of a sad state of music criticism, I will admit that the new Liars record is pretentious, not entirely accessible, but it's also brilliant. Seriously, what other band is moving forward like this? A few tracks actually do hint at the Liars of old, including the synth infused "They Don't Want Your Corn..." and the noisy post-punk anarchy of "Hold Hands..." and "Broken Witch" has something resembling sing-along hook. But, the dark disorder of "There's Always Room..." and "If You're A Wizard..." reflect the overall eerie undercurrent of the record. I mean, the record is about the witch hunts from years ago, something that the Liars own brand of dance-punk from a few years ago wouldn't really fit. In the end, you might hate this record, but you shouldn't dismiss it after one spin. It's definitely not one of those record you'll necessarily understand upon first listen. So whether or not you want the old Liars back is up to you. But for all the nonsense about this new inaccesible direction, let me just say that Liars were never an ordinary "dance-punk" band (just look at the last track on They Threw Us In A Trench...), and the fact that they were pigeonholed as such was rather bizarre. if you're a fan of post-punk with avant-garde touches, this should be your bag.