Over a decade of restless experimentalism, Liars have staked their claim as one of America’s most fascinating bands, and true to form their sixth album will both comfort and confound. Following a dalliance with garage rock and psychedelia on 2007’s Liars, the trio moved back to the States from Berlin and Sisterworld (2009) was the result – an intentionally more streamlined exploration of the seedy underworld of Los Angeles, their new home. Again recorded in LA, WIXIW (pronounced “wish you”) continues in a similar vein, presenting a haunted, claustrophobic but oddly beautiful vision of urban ennui. If anything, WIXIW is even more uncompromising than its predecessor, with little variation in tempo or tone, and Angus Andrew – a Nick Cave for our times – at his eerie best.
The key point is the use of synthesisers and mechanical rhythms. The band have been on Mute Records – best known as Depeche Mode and Erasure’s label in the ‘80s – since 2003, but they have never sounded so like a Mute band. Perhaps that’s down to the production assistance of label boss Daniel Miller – but it gives this album its unique flavour: the lush sweep of the opening ‘The Exact Colour Of Doubt’; the hypnotic pulse of ‘A Ring On Every Finger’; and the nightmarish single ‘No. 1 Against The Rush’. Only on ‘Brats’ does the band’s latent punk side manifest itself: this is a meticulously produced studio record with a gloriously gloomy atmosphere.