Liars

Perpetual reinvention is a tricky business. In music, it either takes you so far away from your roots that you lose the plot or finds you succumbing to your "accessible” tendencies, either of which can threaten your core audience. Brooklyn noise heroes Liars already committed the former with 2004’s polarising They Were Wrong So We Drowned, so why not go for broke and attempt the latter? Their eponymous fourth full-length finds them doing just that, however, with the expected intricacy and perversion that habitually permeates their songwriting. As a "rock” album, it’s obstinate in its scope, like the kid who promises to clean his room then just throws everything under the bed. Lead track and first single "Plaster Casts of Everything” comes out of the gates packing falsettos, thrash metal licks and a murderous drone. From there it only gets more volatile; Beck’s white boy hip-hop embosses "Houseclouds,” "Cycle Time” bleeds flesh-melting acid rock and on "Pure Unevil,” both the guitars and melodies are detuned to sulk like the Jesus & Mary Chain. But Liars is still irregular in its form; songs like "Leather Prowler” and "The Dumb in the Rain” threaten with industrial bustle and clatter, which jars any notion that this is even remotely "commercial.” Instead this is Liars building their impressive legacy — now with more rock!

Click here to read a web exclusive interview with Liars' Angus Andrews.