Four Letter Lie - A New Day
Rating
RIYL
The BledEmarosa
Chiodos
Release Date
10/13/2009
Label
Victory RecordsTracklist
1. Daymaker2. We’re All Sinners
3. Careless Lover
4. It’s Finally Over
5. My Surrender…
6. The Spell
7. Strugglers
8. Key to the World
9. I’m Done Trying…
10. Young Hearts
11. Faces in Places
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Four Letter Lie have returned with their latest offering, A New Day, which arrives with a much wider scope than their previous two releases. Gone is the Four Letter Lie of yore, which seemed terrified of experimentation in any way, preferring to inhabit the veritable musical no-man’s land of formulaic screamo / pop-mosh. This latest incarnation of the group finds them pushing their music in new directions, finally leaving behind the shackles that kept them musically imprisoned for years. A New Day has upped the ante for these Minnesotans. The result is a record that often plays like The Bled-lite. This record is the sound of a band maturing, a band finally stretching its songwriting muscles. Yes, there are some growing pains, and the album is very uneven, but ultimately this release has pointed Four Letter Lie in the right direction.
A New Day kicks off with the excellent “Daymaker,” seamlessly marrying the hardcore crunch of the rhythm section with melodic guitar work. It is clear right from the start that the trite, stylized sound of the first two records is giving way to a new direction. The fourth track, “It’s Finally Over,” features a very strong performance by vocalist Brian Nagan, some electronic textures, and a killer southern rock riff that transitions nicely into a two-step. “The Spell” and “Strugglers” are both first-rate songs with moments that are very reminiscent of The Bled. “Faces in Places” is a solid closer that starts out with an ambient intro before segueing into some guitar harmonization, a classic rock guitar passage, and an introspective chorus.
What mars the disc and prevents it from getting a higher rating, however, is its inconsistency. Although Four Letter Lie gets kudos for trying new things, cuts like “We’re All Sinners,” “Key to the World,” and “Careless Lover” are just boring. They are meandering songs that sound like a band searching for an identity. “Young Hearts” is an apt microcosm of the disc - it has its moments, but suffers from a lack of consistency throughout. The weakest point on the disc, “My Surrender…,” is downright awful. It sounds like a b-side from What a Terrible Thing to Say.
Despite its shortcomings, A New Day has to be judged as a success for breathing some life into a moribund band. Instead of continuing to blindly produce the same record Four Letter Lie have gone out on a limb and experimented with their sound. They have expanded their collective sonic palette just enough to show growth. A New Day indeed.
--Jake Oliver
Comments
San Jose, CA
Just based on the RIYL this sounds like it's icky.
last.fm/user/thetsaiguy
Minnesota
This is easily the band's best album... but that's not saying much. I want to support these guys since they're a Minneapolis band, but they're still sort of blah-ish. At least this album is listenable most of the time. Their past two really weren't.
Find me EVERYWHERE:
I feel that this review has a slight contradiction. The first paragraph explains how much of a maturity this album has but then goes on to say how too experimental this album was for the worse. One thing that this review failed to mention is that Four Letter Lie lost their guitarist/singing vocalist Kevin Skaff. Obviously Kevin had a major part of this band and with him leaving it left FLL in a dillema. Does FLL try and replace Kevin with a vocalist that will only get compared to him like every other band, or do they go on without the extra singing vocalist. Obviously they went with the latter. In the end I think it worked for them in the better. Yeah this new album isn't what people are used to for Four Letter Lie. But at least they don't have to go through the scrutiny other bands have had to getting a new vocalist (i.e. Misery Signals, Dance Gavin Dance, Saosin, Underoath.) And whether anyone thinks those new bands' front men are good or not, at least FLL can work on the style they have now instead of trying to duplicate why people liked them initially. They can please the fans who continue to like them and work with the sound they have decided to be dealt with.
Somewhere in New York
So, what are you trying to prove?
"If someone gives you a kazoo and toots around the house to MTV, they're not gonna fuck you." - David Cross
San Borja, Lima, Perú
Having this review read is the only reason why i'm playing them on myspace in hope to listen to a different band than before. Doesn't sound bad, but reharshed stuff still. Think the score is appropiate.