Tuesday, April 06, 2004

Observer & Daily Telegraph not as impressed with 'Liars'

Three Cheers for Kitty Empire in the Observer who dares to be the first to take a few light swings at 'Liars'. She feels Todd "suffers from a surfeit of ability and equipment" and that whilst Todd has a lot of interesting stuff to say the music is "overweening", and in the end Todd "can't relieve his music of its bloatedness". I have to say whilst I am revising my own views of the album (to more positive, now I have a real copy of it), I can still see where she's coming from.

Over at the Daily Telegraph, David Cheal calls it an "ambitious collection" that lives up to its ambition "to a degree". At worst - again pointing at 'truth' he calls the album "hectoring", "cliched" , and " not terribly tuneful". However, he says at its best "as on the relentless, churning 'Living' its irresistable". The album he says is a mixture of "extremes of brilliance and browbeating".

The Independent on Sunday proclaims "the original king of eclectica is back" in yet another 4 star review, which the reviewer justifies on the album's soul smoothness (he's less a fan of tracks such as 'Truth'). Elsewhere, the Leicester Mercury review calls Liars "a work of art"; and the Newcastle Journal suggests that any reader "looking for an alternative take on rock" to check out the album.

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