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Rating: After 3 years of silence since the release of their first work, They Threw Us In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top, an appreciable album that manages to revisit the tradition of 1980s indie garage with some original twist, the Liars surprise and astonish with this They Were Wrong So We Drowned.
This work retains nothing of the previous phase, it is an album that doesn’t invite you to dance, that doesn’t drag you with well-crafted bass lines, that doesn’t revisit stereotypes drawn from the bag of tradition to engage you in a garage-fest. The Liars mutate, veering radically towards those dark abrasiveness that will become their trademark. Their sound becomes murky, grabbing the listener by the hair and dragging them into a disorienting dimension made of rusty melodies and ghostly voices. The importance previously given to the rhythmic session is conceived in a completely different way: the bass eclipses in favor of drums burdened with an almost mystical role, serving as the backbone to tracks where the voice comes to assume almost shamanic connotations. It's the beginning of new and unhealthy paths. Angus and his crew no longer follow already traced paths and shake the new-wave world with their sonic and conceptual deconstruction. Classified as a concept album about witchcraft, in reality, as Angus himself states, it is nothing but "the story of a girl and a bear, something I read when I was little. They are on a journey and encounter an army of bloodthirsty witches." And indeed the entire album is pervaded by a kind of urban witchcraft where industrial soundscapes reign supreme. The lyrics, all the product of Angus's twisted mind, outline a positive view of the "witch" phenomenon which "represented the fear towards an unfamiliar sex, claiming its power. In this sense, I would definitely define They Were Wrong as a record linked to a certain idea of feminism" (Angus).
The beginning shocks; on a cadenced and repetitive drum, ecstatic choirs entwine, suggesting a mad and growing dance of dazed and possessed looks, followed by the almost three minutes of pure industrial noise of "Steam Rose from the Lifeless Cloak", a splendid intro to the delirious "There's Always Room on the Broom" where an appealing instrumental line accompanies a raucous overlap of choir and voice. But we are only at the start of the journey: "If You're a Wizard, Then Why Do You Wear..." is even more deconstructing, two minutes of noises and breath-taking screams.
The entire album is a continual alternation of frenetic and ecstatic Sabbath dances and less violent tracks, but no less impactful, all set on an industrial-noise sound humus. It almost seems as though for their ceremony, Angus’s witches have this time chosen the gloomy atmosphere of an abandoned factory where the echoes of machinery still resonate. And involuntarily, we are involved up to our necks. How we got here we can’t comprehend, but the path to exit is mandatory, and only with the last track, "Flow My Tears the Spider Said", do the Liars show us the way back to reality. Only with the last track do we leave everything behind. It is a tunnel where the laments and noises of the nightmare just left behind still echo faintly, but where the candid chirping of the reassuring world we’re about to return to is already audible. An insane and undefinable album that leaves you stunned by its power and corrosivity. Absolutely worth listening.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Broken Witch (06:08)
I NO LONGER WANT TO BE A MAN.
I WANT TO BE A HORSE.
MEN HAVE SMALL THOUGHTS.
I NEED A TAIL.
GIVE ME A TAIL.
TELL ME A TALE
OF THE CHILDREN THAT STOOD IN THE WAY
OF THE ENDLESS WINTER
OF THE WHITE WITCH WHO'S LONGING TO CRIPPLE IMPALE
I, I AM THE BOY.
SHE, SHE IS THE GIRL.
HE HE IS THE BEAR.
WE WE ARE THE ARMY YOU SEE THROUGH THE RED HAZE OF BLOOD
BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD
BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD
I, I am the girl.
She, she is the girl.
He, he is the bear.
We, we, we want to be
Him(I), we(I), we(I) want to be a horse.
I, I AM THE BOY
SHE, SHE IS THE GIRL.
HE, HE IS THE BEAR.
AND WE, WE WE ARE THE ARMY
YOU SEE THROUGH THE RED HAZE OF BLOOD
BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD
WE ARE THE ARMY YOU SEE THROUGH THE RED HAZE OF
BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD
WE ARE THE ARMY YOU SEE THROUGH THE RED HAZE OF
BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD
Wanna be a horse
I I I
Wanna be a horse
I I I
Wanna be a horse
I I I
I I I
I I I
I I I
I I I
I
I
I
I, I AM THE BOY.
SHE, SHE IS THE GIRL.
HE, HE, HE IS THE BEAR
WE, WE, WE ARE THE ARMY YOU SEE THROUGH THE RED HAZE OF
BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD
WE ARE THE ARMY YOU SEE THROUGH THE RED HAZE OF
BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD
WE ARE THE ARMY YOU SEE THROUGH THE RED HAZE OF
BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD
BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD
Blood blood blood blood
Blood
03 There's Always Room on the Broom (03:04)
Lay the cross
That's how we choose to wrap it up.
Time and grant approved,
Oh, what a move.
Took a sip -
The compass over rock and cliff.
Dead for years -
On devil's tears.
They disappear -
Fly away -
Spider web,
From my leg to my head.
Dragon's egg,
In the cubbord.
Saw the light,
In the quicksand.
Dark is cryin',
For the world.
Fly from peace.
(Oohh)
I said you're gonna get it in a second
On my way from my pony
All the girls so you win it.
You'll never stop the world,
And you make it with a cow,
And they wanna understand it so they kill it.
In summer wont we want to be in school with everyone?
So we huddle all together,
'Till we get more damage done,
(Oooh).
I say you're gonna get it in a second
On my way come and put it on the girls
And you win it
You never stop the word
Try to fake it with a cow
And they wanna undrestand it so they kill it.
In summer wont we want to be in school with everyone?
So now we're all together,
Till we get more damage done.
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Other reviews
By Ventu
It's definitely not an easy record; some sounds can definitely hurt your brain.
An album seemingly without melodies hidden by the various noises present.
By Alessandro Gentili
"A dark trip through the darkest recesses of the human soul, lyrics like mantras obsessively repeated."
"Not to hear, but to listen to carefully and multiple times: you might not like it, but it’s impossible to remain indifferent."
