The new Liars album, Sisterworld (Mute), includes an album insert with forest images of the Australian boys in tattered clothes amongst wooded greens. The visual effect is eerie and jarring; the feeling is however only an introduction to the album’s dark and dreary nightmare of twists and turns.
Sisterworld is another world. The album carries listeners through a rabbit hole of haunting angular guitars and chilling piano melodies. Each song is replete with years of careful detail and thought. The sound effects and distorted instruments could sound awkward alone, but are instead perfectly placed to create a larger, more compelling sound. The vocals drag the conscience to an area of deeper, more sinister thought, echoing strung-out versions of TV On the Radio–perhaps this is no coincidence, as Liars actually worked with TOTR’s David Sitek on a previous album in 2004.
“Scissor,” the album’s opening track, begins with deep a cappella bellows, followed by thrashing guitars and faster singing. The song flashes back and forth between varied sequences of funeral-like chords before it’s gutted by loud and busy guitar parts at the end. The song’s indecisive, multiple-personality progression continues throughout other songs on the album, like “Scarecrows On A Killer Slant,” “Drop Dead,” and “Goodnight Everything.” “Here Comes All the People” is a more consistent track, talking about death and its victims with stomach-churning refrains.
“I Still Can See An Outside World” almost presents a hopeful version of Liars. Melodic and dreamy, the song drifts through steamy ambiance and lighter vocals, until it turns into a storm of louder sound. The final track, “Too Much, Too Much,” similarly lifts the mood of the album, peaking in its middle with layers of static instrumental purity.
Opponents of Sisterworld could say that it drags too much or that it’s too creepy, however this was the implied intention of Liars. The band made a haunting album and they made it damn well.
Liars are playing tomorrow night at Paradise Rock Club with Fol Chen. The show is 18+ and starts at 8 p.m.
The Quad is giving away a Liars fan package including a Sisterworld poster, and the band’s complete catalog of albums: Liars, Mt. Heart Attack, Drums Not Dead, They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top, and a Sisterworld 2-disc deluxe set. The first person to email me at jbrown@buquad.com will receive the goods.
