Liars - 'Liars' (Mute) Released 20/08/07

For a band as synonymous with shifting sonic identities as Liars, there runs a surprisingly consistent thread throughout their miniscule yet perfectly formed back catalogue thus far whereby each note of each track, whether it be scene-destroying scenester-hating post-punk, or narratives on witchcraft, crackles with an electricity, a restless desire to splatter what used to be a clean, silent aural canvas with feedback, fuzz, broken strings and the texture of gleeful experimentation.

2004’s ‘They Were Wrong, So We Drowned’ first paid notice to the fact Liars weren’t interested in comfort and restrictions; previously notched up neatly in New York’s media-friendly rush of new-wave bands spearheaded by The Strokes, it was this atmospheric, sonically arresting and damn scary second album that threw a ‘Kid A’-style curveball into the idea of pigeonholing. Follow-up ‘Drum’s Not Dead’ replaced the concept of creating fear with an emphasis on wicked rhythms (as the title suggested), the accompanying DVD helping create Liars’ definitive artistic statement to date.

Which brings us to ‘Liars’. Talked up pre-release as a shedding of such aforementioned conceptual burden and the most accessible Liars record since, well, ‘They Threw Us All In A Trench…’, the eleven tracks contained herein exist along lines that could be described as an almost anti-cohesion: the very thing that binds them is their unwillingness to sit beside each under some thematic pretence, an approach that is surprisingly refreshing, making for an LP as thrilling for its adherence to conventional ‘rock album’ principles as it is for finally providing evidence that, tucked behind the difficult avant-garde surface, lurk a band of formidable songwriting prowess.