Liars, "It Fit When I Was A Kid"

After more than a year of lying low following the release of 2004's bewildering They Were Wrong, So We Drowned,Liars return with this provocatively packaged single, a taster fortheir forthcoming full-length.  Though I had hoped that Hemphill,Andrew and Gross might have decided to drop some of the abrasive,self-consciously artsy gestures that made their last album such anunsatisfyingly turgid mess, unfortunately It Fit When I Was A Kid shows that the band is travelling even further down the same rabbit hole, apparently intent on alienating everyone.

Mute

Liars' 2002 debut album was part of a flurry of new groups thatfound their inspiration in early 1980s post-punk-funk groups like ACertain Ratio, The Pop Group and Gang of Four.  Their debut album They Threw Us All In a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Topdemonstrated that, unlike many of their contemporaries, the group wascapable of adding their own idiosyncrasies into the mix, and they endedup with a passable album that was angular and tense, but still filledwith catchy hooks.  Then the band lost two of their foundingmembers, got a new drummer, and began a long descent into purposelybefuddling art rock, culminating in a tiresome concept album aboutwitches or something.

I have a feeling that band and label both realize expiration date forcritical enthusiasm over Liars' is about to be reached, and theprovocative cover artwork for this single seems to be a cynical attemptto ignite some controversy in order to drum up publicity for the newalbum.  The cover shows the heads of the three bandmembersdigitally grafted onto a pornographic gay menage a trois.  Though retail copies of the single are censored, the full artwork can be seen here,and mailorder copies of the 7" will contain the uncensored imageprinted onto edible paper.  It's a gimmick that appears to havefuckall to do with the actual musical content of the single, andeverything to do with getting the bloggers of the world to help promotethe new release.

The upcoming full-length is a CD/DVD combo entitled Drum's Not Dead,indicating a new emphasis on percussion, which can clearly be heard on"It Fit When I Was A Kid."  The song's sing-songy vocal chant ispartially lifted from The Turtles' "You Showed Me" and placed amidst anresonant jungle of tribal drumming and mechanical bass.  Halfway through, the song pauses for breath, returning with churchorgan, vocal multitracks and creepy echo chamber.  It's not aterrible track, but it seems almost neanderthal in its simplicity,and it's anything but groovy.  The two b-sides are completelypointless, all splattery obtuseness and formless blurt.  The besttrack is the "Don't Techno For An Answer" remix of the a-side, whichups the tribal quotient by leaps and bounds, producing a wonky rhythmattack not unlike those Boredoms Re-Bore mix albums.

Of the three MPG videos included on the CD, two are utterly mindless,and another borrows heavily from Terry Gilliam.  This doesn't bodewell for the upcoming DVD, which apparently includes three separatevisual takes on the entire album.  At bottom, I think the newemphasis on visual art is really just a distraction from the fact thatLiars haven't really written any songs.  Groups that Liarsobviously hope to emulate—The Pop Group, This Heat, MountEerie, and even Neubauten—have always had songs at the heart of even their mostunorthodox experiments.  Liars attempt to infuse their workwith conceptual trappings that are vague and incoherent, and their musicis undernourished and underwritten, so everything falls apart intoformlessness.  I'm guessing that some will find somethingmeaningful to grasp onto in the midst of this nebulousness, but I forone no longer care to even try.

samples:

• It Fit When I Was A Kid
• Frozen Glacier of Mastodon Blood
• It Fit When I Was A Kid (Don't Techno For An Answer Remix)