Labels: coalition
Review by: Andy Malcolm
I have seen more amazing bands this year than any other year. I could list them here, but that would be un-necessarily geeky. Anyways, Books Lie was one of those amazing bands. I got to see them play 2 quite differing shows (one in Utrecht, and one in Cambridge) which were both hugely enjoyable for differing reasons. The first of those two shows sounded not much at all like the band on this CD. I am not sure why.
Ok, I have been sitting on this CD for two months, well, maybe not, I would have a nasty imprint on my arse if that was the case, but what I mean is – I have taken 2 months to review the damn thing. Books Lie have changed a touch since their rocking “It A Weapon” LP, by having Mr. Eric Owens take over on vocals. If you are not familiar, Eric provided the distinctive vocals to End of the Century Party, who, uh, I rather like a lot. So that factor there is straight away a plus. Musically there is great, there is good, and there is subpar on here. Mostly I like the fast and manic songs such as “Honkified Nightmare” and “Bobby’s Got A Nosebleed” which really suit Eric’s vocals. On these tracks Books Lie are chaotic and fit in well with bands like Angel Hair, or even Eurich and all that spazzy melodic stuff. They have emo parts and bits where Eric gets to do his talky parts that always remind me of Native Nod. “Letter to My Psychiatrist” is downright amazing, “Do you feel nervous? Do you feel anything?”, with it’s minute long build up that zings off into a hardcore blast. The good songs on this CD are the more straight up hardcore tracks like they did on the first LP, except here they have a little less impact. I always enjoy Eric’s lyrics too, and he has put in some to the point explanations at the back too.
The subpar is the electronic tracks. Well, not subpar in terms of quality, as I will explain in a minute, but subpar in terms of satisfaction. Now, I found the techno stuff on their Level Plane 7″ quite fun, but here they totally disrupt the albums flow. The record is merrily rocking along then suddenly there is this annoying track that stops the rock. So I have to skip them, and can’t really comment on their quality, as I never listen to them.
Anyways, this is quite a blast. A good hardcore record with some outstanding songs. I enjoyed it.