Liars - Mess

‘Expect the unexpected’, surely the only useful approach when anticipating anything Liars produce. Effortlessly changing gear, scene, style, genre, anything they can take their hand to they can wipe away and recreate with the other hand. The trio’s constant metamorphosis is somewhere between a natural reflex and an indelible signature of the band.

Already Liars have reached their seventh album. How many bands have made seven good albums in a row? By the quickest and shallowest of counts, only Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails can immediately offer themselves as recent candidates. Critical darlings Arcade Fire only last year released their fourth album, while Liars’ fellow New York breakthroughs The Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs have managed five and four respectively.

So here’s the pitch – We’re Liars, we’re going to make another brilliant album and we’re going to make it significantly different to our existing output. To attain this seemingly unlikely end Liars have plundered the shinier ends of synth-pop and rave-fuelling electronica. The results are astonishing. Dancing is back. Colour is back. Spiky keyboards, shout-out lyrics and mixtape style merging of song to song is back. Cool, subtle and nonchalant is out. ‘Mess’ is in.

Opening with a heavily computerised vocal of “Take my pants off…” but soon descending into “…eat my face off” Liars are showcasing their trademark sinister twist, this time on the glossy, dramatic over-sexuality of Peaches or The Presets. Insistent bouncing synths run on into the darker and industrial electro of ‘Vox Tuned To D.E.D’ and ‘I’m No Gold’, with Angus Andrew’s unique deep, entrancing croon in the foreground of what could pass for backing from Danger or Kavinsky. Liars are playing French electro at its own game and walking away with blood-stained leather jackets and the sweet taste of victory. They’re making it all look so damn easy, moving from a reclusive bizarreness to room-owning charisma yet keeping it so intense and twisted that it couldn’t be anything but Liars. Each subsequent track is pure showmanship and the band toy with the audience even more so with playful titles like ‘Pro Anti Anti’, a murky track titled ‘Can’t Hear Well’ and ‘Left Speaker Blown’.

With overwhelming confidence the Brooklyn-based trio present 11 songs of unerring quality and an almost uncountable numbers of flicks and tricks. The chaos and individuality only pose one question that is ever more pressing as each twist and turn produces another surprise or delight; how long can you be extraordinarily good before you become legendary?

Liars look closer than ever.