Liars- Liars

I have a hard time with Liars. Not because I don't enjoy their music, but because I enjoy the often-hysterical critical response even more. OMG THEY WERE WRONG SO WE DROWNED IS INACCESSIBLE ART-CRAP! OMG DRUM'S NOT DEAD IS THE GREATEST RECORD EVER *BECAUSE* IT'S INACCESSIBLE!

Now add to the screeching blogger-refrain "OMG LIARS ARE WRITING POP SONGS AND THEY KIND OF SOUND LIKE BECK NOW WTF!?!/!"

Okay really, there's only one song on Liars that sounds like Beck (track 2, "Houseclouds"). But Liars are writing pop songs again. From the opening stomp of "Plaster Casts of Everything" through album-closer "Protection," we're getting what would otherwise be fairly typical indie-rock songs filtered through the Liars' now-signature Kraut-goth reverb desolation.

For me, it's this delivery that really sells the songs- they'd be horrendously boring if, say, Chin Up Chin Up were playing them. As Liars tracks, and as a refreshing palate-cleanser after two albums' worth of relentlessly experimental music-making, they work.

Is it the best record of their career? Probably not. But it's a worthy addition to their discography, and for folks turned off the band by They Were Wrong or Drum's Not Dead, Liars could be the hook that brings them back into the fold.

Man, that one song really does sound like Beck, though. Just saying.