Liars - Sisterworld (album review ver. 2)

I wrote up a review of this album a couple months ago, but was unsatisfied with it, so this is the second version.
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Sisterworld came out back in April, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. But the thing is, I thoroughly enjoyed it because I'm already a 'foaming at the mouth' type Liars fan. The album is far from their best - I'd say it's my least favourite. But on the other hand, My Bloody Valentine's album Isn't Anything is my least favourite of theirs, and it's fucking incredible. So what does that make Sisterworld? Relatively, it's the worst album from a band that produces near perfect albums; so it's kind-of a letdown when you've been rabidly watching Liars crank out 4 amazing albums in a row, but it's not bad.

Liars have always been excellent at creating both rhythmically exciting songs from strange noises and slow rhythm free ambient transitions, or even just pure noise with abandon, but here they lose something. Where ambient transitions on They Were Wrong So We Drowned felt like they had purpose, tracks on Sisterworld like 'Goodnight Everything' are bland, predictable, and almost all atmosphere. Rhythmic banging for 3 minutes following cryptic lyrics about witches and blood, while never really making literal sense, just seemed right in the past, whereas here they use a solid structure (almost pop...?) within their songwriting - even with the fucking noise it seems – and now it feels like they're making ambient-esque tracks because we all expected it. As an example, 'I Still Can See An Outside World' comes across as a track that undoubtedly sounded great when they wrote it, but definitely needs a 'see the forest for the trees approach'. It's slow, which is fine, and it sounds 'cool', but it's barely interesting, relying far too heavily on atmospherics. Same goes for cuts like 'Drop Dead', 'Goodnight Everything', and closer 'Too Much, Too Much'. They're not bad songs, they're just all atmosphere, all fluff.

Scattered around these tracks is what could have been an excellent EP, instead of a 'good enough' LP. Scissor is a goddamned rousing song that creeps under your skin - I'm getting shivers just thinking about it as I type – using horns where guitars could have been. Drip has the kind of dissonant off-kilter rhythm and melodies that they perfected on Drums Not Dead. The Overachievers is one of the biggest surprises, just because it's almost completely cut-time punk, with a drumbeat like Iggy Pop's lust for life. The real standout track would have to be Proud Evolution; It's clever, singable (chant-able?), and when I saw them play in Vancouver it turned the entire venue into a dance party.

Liars are an amazing band, with an obviously huge amount of talent and a solid ear. While they haven't made another groundbreaking album like past efforts, they have made a good album, one that just hovers in limbo where fans love it and newbies might pan it. I hope the newbies at least give it a chance.