Lies for the Liars review

What did The Used intend to do?

Frankly speaking, The Used hold quite an enviable position on a modern alternative emopost-hardcore scene. They have two solid albums, the whole army of admirers and a big creative potential. In a word, the whole bag of tricks for a successful and longstanding career. But the band has one problem - people compare them with extra popular band My Chemical Romance too often. And involuntary The Used look like the band that tries to keep pace with the leader always staying in the shadow of their starry colleagues. However, this likeness of the bands is a bit exaggerated, as it is visible only on the surface. In reality The Used sound much heavier and if there is someone to blame for these comparisons this are The Used themselves first of all. Having their own original character, which was displayed so brightly on their debut disc, the band still preferred to move in the mainstream direction and released powerful and qualitative but much more pop oriented album In Love And Death in 2004. Is it good or is it bad? – a disputable question, but what steps The Used will take next? - is much more important one. Will they keep their mainstream moves or they will try to find their own way?

All-round development of The Used

It is worth admitting that The Used have found a pretty original solution. Their new album Lies For The Liars moves in both directions simultaneously, combining influences of previous albums and a new qualitative approach. The most of the songs on the album are straight-ahead, heavy and melodic pieces. The first track is quite a suitable example. The Ripper gives a powerful start to the whole album with its speedy punk-metal riffage. Lead singer Bert McCracken combines pure voice singing with neurotic emo screams just perfectly and they made a competent interweaving of the overall sonic context with electronic samples. The further events develop in the mode of increasing progression. Pretty Handsome Awkward is a really interesting song, it sounds as heavy as the previous one but very peculiar, the influence of rock music is evident here. The Bird And The Worm is probably the most mystique song of the album. It starts with a very intriguing, eerie strings intro that bursts into a heavy mid tempo verse. The sounds imitating otherworldly noises are scattered throughout the composition, which has a very diverse structure of loud and bewitching parts. McCracken is doing his best again here, this time out he sounds really artistic.

Lies For The Liars – the most qualitative album of The Used

The overall production of Lies For The Liars concerns album's advantages too. Everything is done very qualitative, all the songs sound powerful and bright. However, it may seem that The Used overdone the arrangements. Appearance of additional instruments, violin for instance, sometimes looks pointless. Why add something when regular guitars sound good enough? But in general, there is nothing you can cavil at. Yet, despite all the advantages the whole matter couldn't do without a fly in the ointment. The thing is that The Used began using pop punk elements too openly. With Me Tonight, for example, sounds like Fall Out Boy meets Relient K. And though, the band tries to avoid such moments and dilute them with hardcore parts, like it was done on Wake The Dead, pop influence is still undeniable. The soft moves and melodies are scattered throughout the record. However, this has some advantages too, a ballad Find A Way, for instance, sounds simply perfect. So, the summary for this album will be as follows: firstly, The Used got rid of emo tag forever. Secondly, the band's repertoire has noticeably broadened and their stylistic way of thinking became more diverse. And finally, with this album The Used went even deeper into the mainstream territory, though many songs still sound really original and interesting. Lies For The Liars will definitely Let them attract new crowds of fans, the album is not the best release of this year but in comparison with In Love And Death it sounds much better.

14.06.2007