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If Hot Hot Heat had a thicker punk pedigree and a more
circuitous skew on the dance floor, they might be able to pull
off the vertiginous onslaught of Lying In States. If Lying
In States make you dance, it's more involuntary, like you're dodging
the sharp, heavy riffs dug in deep into the songs' skin. More
Sonic Youth than Gang Of Four, Lying In States deliver
a dirgey rock album, adamantly fierce and eminently addictive.
"Fall Or Stumble" sounds like the crackling vocals
are being delivered on a bad cell phone conversation on top of
thumping keyboard and guitar that winds like razor wire around
Ben Clarke's voice. "We" switches up their sound
entirely, taking on alt country to mediocre effect, a solid track
for Cub Country, a shitty one for Wilco, a pointless
one for this record. Other stretches make more sense, such as
"Fat Hawk" where the tempo and guitar work get sludged
up in a mire of stop-start guitar where the drums and the vocals
dialogue in the song's pauses. It's one of the most fitfully haunting
ballads I've ever heard. It's also one of the highlights where
they display the ability to have a range without sacrificing sonic
coherence. "Know It All" sounds like The Cult
filtered through a sliver of Rolling Stones honky tonk,
a song that still remains there own in fist pounded piano and
slabs of guitar noise that cut in any time melody threatens to
rest on its laurels.
It's impossible not to hear this record and be forced to find
several ways in which to convey the word "tight", since
that trait dominates nearly every track and defines the albums
jaggedly controlled aesthetic. Even when singer, Ben Clarke, is
squelching out his vocals, with the telltale agony lacing straight
from Robert Smith, he does so with a fury-infused restraint.
The guitar work has "angular" scribbled all over it,
except that it's always perilously close to breaking through complex
and contrary riffs through sheer intensity and volume. Some might
find their grip claustrophobic, but I find the white-knuckled
punch like having them amps plugged right into my jaws and legs,
a glorious bypass of tension and energy. Most Every Night
is a shamefully overlooked record by a band too unkempt, unruly
and ballsy to bother with passing trends and thin-skinned postures.
-Terry Sawyer
Track Listing:
1. Most Every Night
2. Fall Or Stumble
3. Vie Capital Ponk
4. Return Of The Cornea
5. We
6. Tackle Me I'm On Fire
7. Know It All
8. Fat Hawk
9. Yep
10. Hot Mountain
11. In All Of Christendom
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Lying
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