(Mute/EMI)

Fifth album open letter to Los Angeles. They don’t seem to be big fans

In case you were wondering or nervous, Liars are still weirder than the hypothetical threeway lovechild of Latoya Jackson and Tracey Morgan and Phil Spector. I know you were thinking that they had lost their noisenik edge on their last album (2007’s Liars), what with all those choruses and melodies and that song that really sounded like it was written either by or for Beck ... but if anything, you should be happy that they’re progressively listening to more Nick Cave albums and creating less cumbersome song titles. Pre-release reports from the band claimed Sisterworld was written in and about Los Angeles, a town whose blurring of reality and fantasy has devoured countless starstruck (which is a nice way of saying delusional) hopefuls. Album opener Scissor sets the tone and pace for the album, taking the soft-loud-soft dynamics into furiously fuzzed-out directions that Frank Black never dreamed of. The trio has learned that there are other ways to create stark and confronting sounds that don’t involve pure guttural screams and walls of acidic guitar (although there are plenty of both on Scarecrows Down A Killer Slant). Sustained levels of suspense are chosen over short stabs of brutality, much like horror movies that go beyond the standard slasher formula. Chromatic scales, mournful violins and slow chants may have somewhat replaced piercing samples and frenetic danceability, but don’t confuse a reduction of anger with a loss of aggression. They’re still the guys you want to invite to your party, just probably not the guys you want to play at your party.

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MITCH ALEXANDER

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