I’m all for experimentation and innovation in music, but sometimes the desire to create something new can be taken too far. They Were Wrong, So We Drowned is a perfect example of something that probably sounded fantastically exciting on paper, but the end result is the sound of a band trying far too hard to be different, with mostly disastrous results.
‘Steam Rose From The Lifeless Cloak’ begins like someone left the record button pressed while another member of the band was playing video games, but soon mutates into what sounds like somebody banging a stick against a padded wall repeatedly. I’ve no problem with self expression but for fuck’s sake lads, what the hell is wrong with melody?
Their lyrics aren’t exactly going to keep the Nobel Prize jury awake at night and usually end up sounding like depressed adolescent poetry at its worst. Indeed, most of the titles are better than the songs themselves. Tracks like ‘If You’re A Wizard Then Why Do You Wear Glasses?’ or ‘Read The Book That Wrote Itself’ promise much, but the former is a cacophonic noisefest that sounds like it was recorded in a sheet metal worker’s premises, while the latter resembles nothing moreso than a lunatic being let loose with a box of movie sound effects.
One thing I will give Liars credit for is that they’re certainly not afraid to plough their own furrow. There’s no plodding middle ground for this band of musical terrorists. Unfortunately, try as I might, this is a band whose motives I can admire but whose music I could never love. A shame, that, because they have the potential to be really good.