The Used: Lies For The Liars
Lies For The Liars is the Used's third album
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Friday, 25, May 2007 03:59
Reprise, out May 21st 2007.
In a nutshell.
Sugary screams from Utah punks
What's it all about?
The third album from Utah aggro-punks The Used, Lies For The Liars sees the band continuing their seemingly inevitable progression to the middle of the road. Even with renowned punk producer Chris Lord-Alge on board and a chaotic start with The Ripper, the rest of the album retains the sense of drama of the first two releases, but maintains the pop sensibilities that were coming more evident by second CD, In Love And Death.
That said, there's a lovely nostalgic feel to the Alice In Chains-esque (and oddly spelt) Pretty Ahndsome Awkward, while The Bird & The Worm makes great work of some monolithic strings and slightly incongruous hardcore screaming. At some points though, there's a worrying similarity to college rock - this probably isn't much of a problem for fans of the poppier facets of their back catalogue, but devotees of their earlier screamo will be disappointed.
The furious beginning of Wake The Dead transforms brilliantly with a stunning middle eight, with backing vocals more than a little reminiscent of Pink Floyd's Great Gig In The Sky, while Paralyzed unashamedly rips off The Cure's Love Cats. Album closer Smother Me is a syrupy, heart-on-the-sleeve ballad and very good at that job - it just seems rather unexpected by a band whose previous songs have made no secret of suicide attempts and heroin addiction.
Who's it by
While the band's second album, In Love And Death, was as emotional as you'd expect from a lyricist who'd just lost his pregnant ex-girlfriend to a drug overdose, the new album seems the work of a man deeply in love. Bert McCracken may have risen to fame as one of Kelly Osbourne's first boyfriends, but while maintaining his fantastic guttural scream, this collection's almost certainly too mainstream for the screamo-inclined.
That said, there's at least some venom on the album - a recent fallout with My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way reportedly informed Pretty Ahndsome Awkward, with both McCracken and guitarist Quinn Allman telling Kerrang! magazine that the song was about someone with "short blonde hair".
As an example.
"Oh how these moments fade away, you say you never loved me/we say things we didn't mean to say/I take it back, I take it all back now" - Bert in emotionally crippled mode on Paralyzed
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Slim to none sounds harsh, but it's probably fair. It's nowhere near heavy enough to compete with the harder exponents of the genre, its choruses are undeniably catchy but probably not smart enough to challenge the likes of My Chemical Romance and it's too hard-edged to really garner much attention from the pop-punk generation.
What the others say
"The Used frontman Bert McCracken always emotes as if his heart is being fed through a paper shredder, but on his band's third record, he tones down the tonsil-torturing shrieks in favor of slicker, more melodic phrasing that brightens the mascara-black screamos." - Jason Bracelin, Blender
"The band's most impressive achievement here might be their ability to renovate their sound without destroying the emotional and musical heaviness of their walloping, throat-shredding post-hardcore. The result is nothing short of their biggest, boldest and best work." - Darryl Sterdan, Jam! Showbiz
So is it any good?
It's a problematic album in many respects - as a debut, it'd be a large success; they've successfully merged the lighter side of screamo with some grandstanding choruses and pop nous. But as a third album from a band whose first release was visceral and immediate, it's a disappointing progression, with some mediocre pop-rock blighting the album all too frequently.
If you're a fan of choruses that could easily accompany Whitesnake singer David Coverdale draped around a big-haired model - and this reviewer certainly is - then it's a great success. Constantly mentioning MCR is probably unfair but pretty much unavoidable, given the band's shared histories. If you compare it with The Black Parade - an outstanding album from a band combining all the greatest aspects of their previous efforts - Lies For The Liars just doesn't measure up. While Gerard Way inspires a devoted army of fans to scream "I am not afraid to walk this world alone", it's much harder to imagine a festival crowd singing along with the truly awful chorus of Liar Liar - yes, he really does sing "Liar liar/pants on fire".
7/10
Lewis Bazley