Definitely not an album with general appeal
Robert Moore | Chicago, IL USA | 03/11/2006
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I went out of my way to locate and obtain this album before its domestic release based entirely on a glittering 9.0 review on Pitchforkmedia. For those unfamiliar with Pitchforkmedia, a 9.0 is akin to Rolling Stone giving an album a 5 star rating or most others a max-plus rating. I had liked OK their previous album THEY THREW US ALL IN A TRENCH AND PUT A MONUMENT ON TOP. After having gotten the album and listened to it the minimum ten times before I will ever review anything, I realize that I paid insufficient attention to a key phrase in the review about the "continued exploration and evolution of the sound that turned much of their fanbase against them." Well, yeah.
This is thick, atmospheric stuff. They pretty much have abandoned lyrics, melody, and rhythm. What they have left is experiments in sound. I'm not theoretically opposed to this in all instances, but my complaint here is that I didn't find the experiments in any way interesting or compelling. To me it has much of the same appeal as non-acoustic jazz (and yes, one of my biases comes out there). It struck me as pretty limited in its appeal and I have a pretty wide ranging field of interests. There isn't much that I don't find interesting. But I personally like my music to go somewhere.
I would urge caution in getting this album. I wouldn't recommend this to ANYONE who didn't love the Liars' last album, THEY WERE ALL WRONG, SO WE DROWNED or who doesn't love experimental music in general. I did not care of their last album and like experimental music only selectively. Personally, I think that most people will intensely disagree with the 9.0 Pitchforkmedia rating. Dedicated lovers of experimental music will perhaps agree with the rating, but few others.
My main point is, this is an album targeted at a very small number of fans. I think virtually any fan of music will love Arcade Fire or White Stripes or Sufjan Stevens, but I think this appeals to a very, very small audience. So, if you are 100% certain that you have a rough idea what this music is like (i.e., you have heard and loved the Liars earlier albums, in particular their second one), get it. If you have no idea what it sounds like and are just browsing for a new album, go get The Hold Steady's SEPARATION SUNDAY instead."
