REVIEW: Liars "They Were Wrong So We Drowned"

Rating: 5.5

Holy shit.  That was my first response.  My second response was another "Holy shit" followed by "What the fuck" and a serious "huhh?"  I went back and listened again a week later but nothing had changed.

Needless to say this is not the serious, sweaty dance-punk I have come to know and enjoy from Liars.

It would be easy to say that this is simply hard to listen to or dense or noisy or a-rhythmic, and it mostly is.  It is not devoid of rhythm or melody or even hooks, but it comes very close.  It's got more of a geologic pulse sped up than a danceable beat, and its pervasive imagery - witches, black magic, persecution, retribution - doesn't leave much to grab onto by way of a life vest.  It's like a scary movie with a high concept to production values ratio.  And like said scary movie it can suck you in and make you watch inspite of yourself.  Not your starter noise album, or even a representative Liars disc, but it is sure to be a colorful asterisk in the career of the rising NYC band.