Album Review: Liars - WIXIW

Liars are back with their hotly-anticipated sixth record, following up their previous critically-lauded album, 2010's Sisterworld, and with it they offer up something rather different from their already challenging body of work. The album's title, while looking like a baffling Roman numeral, is actually pronounced “wish you”, the idea being that a universal sentiment of longing and hope becomes shrouded and difficult to interpret when misspelt. And, while possibly swimming in the murky waters of pretension, the title's meaning is actually pretty representative of the band's sound on this album.

Produced by Mute Records head honcho, Daniel Miller, WIXIW embraces an electronic soundscape, with soft, measured opener, The Exact Colour Of Doubt, gently beckoning the listener in this new direction. The tracks here were born on a computer – or through experimenting with drum sounds – rather than with an acoustic guitar or piano. If His And Mine Sensations and Octagon vaguely wave towards the hypnotic quality of a post-OK Computer Radiohead, then Ill Valley Prodigies actually sounds like it is voiced by Thom Yorke during one of his most incomprehensible and ethereal moments. Then, after the poppy dance fuzziness of Brats, the album is drawn to a close with Annual Moon Words, which, oddly considering the journey they've just taken us on, lands in more familiar Liars territory and leaves one guessing just where the hell the next album will go.

Wherever it heads, with WIXIW Liars have managed to deliver an intriguing, inventive, brave and ultimately very good record, one quite the departure from what you've heard from the band previously. For that they deserve a lot of credit.