Unlike the two albums prior to this, 'They Were Wrong, So We Drowned' and 'Drum's Not Dead', 'Liars' is less of a concept album and has more of a traditional rock songwriting approach to it, bringing them a lot closer to how they originally appeared on their great dance-rock debut, 'They Threw Us In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top' (breathe:out).

After all the PR surrounding this album, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this is a really dumb, nostalgia-inspired riff fest. On the contrary - after we leave the more conventional moment of the album, opening stomper 'Plaster Casts of Everything', we enter once more into the twisted sounds of Liars.

It's not an easy ride. Dark and ugly at times, catchy and cool at others. It's hard to work out whether Liars succeed at what they set out to do, or whether there was an actual aim in the first place. Or maybe this whole record resembles that 'difficult' teenhood experience, ultimately resembling confusion. Maybe, ironically, 'Liars' is an unintentional concept album after all?!

That's not to say the album's without its merits. Liars have said that they were more concerned with the individual songs than an album's 'feel' as a whole and true, there's some great songs on here - 'Plaster Casts...', 'Houseclouds', 'Clear Island', the Jesus & Mary Chain-like 'Freak Out', the excellently dark love song 'Pure Unevil', as well as ender 'Protection'. The rest of the album has an abrasive and unengaging feel that I personally find hard to appreciate. Whatever you decide, it's hard not to feel a slight feeling of disappointment over the whole package. True, to their credit - you never really DO know what to expect from Liars, but with this outing, I don't feel that they really outdone themselves.

Craig Sharp