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Sisterworld makes delirium more than just contagious--it’s downright catchy.
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When your nightbus home is beset by phantasmagorical drunkards with beady, threatening eyes, when your ears are bashed by mendacious line managers and eyes beset by the violence of news/advert/news, then this incredible album is your passport to a better place.
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Ultimately, the album represents a refinement of every base Liars have covered prior to it, coupled with a mixture of musical maturity and an exploratory vigor that make for an altogether astonishing experience.
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They admirably say as little as possible, yet somehow get the message across. It’s an amazing gift in this day and age, when every wanna-be reality star climaxes at the sound of their own voice, to be concise and minimalist, and I have to say I love them for it.
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For such a dense, demented album to have a definite ending should assure listeners otherwise afraid of institutionalization that further listening will not only be safe, but worth it even if it wasn't.
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Admittedly, some parts are easier to admire than they are to enjoy. But stick with Sisterworld as it builds, let it seep into your brain while you wait for its bulging seams to burst, and you might find yourself unable to turn your ears away. Eventually, Liars' commitment to their own creepy cause proves contagious.
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The oddball trio's new set is edgy and experimental, containing lurid imagery and bold use of dissonance.
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Sisterworld is perhaps their masterpiece, showcasing as it does all strands of the Liars sound so far.
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UncutSisterworld is an impressive record which lurches menacingly between euphoria and tranquility. [Mar 2010, p.89]
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Sisterworld derives unity from its punchdrunk stagger, arresting the worry Liars had lost their command of atmosphere after "Drum’s Not Dead." They’ve soaked themselves in a new city and emerged renewed, once again.
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It's an ethereal end to an album that is both exhausting and exhilarating. Sisterworld is, in musical terms, an interesting place to visit, but you'd definitely not choose to live there.
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For Liars, it's another triumph of stylized strangeness--and the third consecutive album on which they've proven themselves to be one of the most creative and compelling acts in the musical underground.
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As ever though, Liars emerge with their own sonic identity intact - you can 'hear' LA in the chaos, disquiet and vast, starving spaces of these songs, but they remain a band that don't surrender easily to their surroundings.
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Though the concept and the band’s handling of it are impressive, listeners don’t have to be aware of it to appreciate the almost tangible moods Liars create on each song.
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Sisterworld maintains Liars' sonic trappings but apparently deals with subcultural scenes as a means of maintaining identity in a city like LA.
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Sisterworld is petulant, rewarding and ultimately lonely. It’s a record that refuses to pick a style or lock step with the world that exists around it, much like the band that created it.
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The band will surely never be able to banish the ghosts of their tenuous acclaim, but as far as sounding finally, thankfully revitalized by their obvious talent and ravenous taste in all shapes and colors of music, Sisterworld is the most refreshing thing I’ve come upon this year.
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Sisterworld is their first album that fits in soundly with the work of other bands. Whether or not that’s a good thing for Liars is a matter of debate.
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Sisterworld is a slight and perhaps necessary comedown for Liars after the polar extremes of previous releases.
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Sisterworld includes mixtape-friendly stunners and make-it-stop agony in its cryptic commentary on the passive aggression of California. For that, it will get partisans who vouch for it as the best thing they’ve done, while others will declare it unfit to suckle the teat of Blixa Bargeld. It’s worth arguing about.
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Sisterworld veers between frenzy and foreboding, exploring the City of Angels' demonic side, from Charles Manson to Bret Easton Ellis, while producer Tom Biller adds richly detailed Hollywood orchestration.
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A listener might reach the end of Sisterworld and wonder what, exactly, was the point of visiting this imaginary space. Although it is excellently performed, recorded and mixed, this is definitely not an album that could be recommended for its escapist value.
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Liars successfully created a stimulating, challenging, and disturbing record and while it may click immediately for some, don’t get frustrated if you find yourself lost in the woods.
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Alternative PressMuch of Sisterworld has a decidedly seasick feel punctuated only occasionally by angular blasts of carnival-esque speed. All told, it's more than enough to satisfy and just enough to keep you guessing. [Apr 2010, p.126]
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Like everything else the band has done since it graduated at the top of New York City’s millennial post-punk class, the songs are sometimes off-putting material, requiring patience.
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Under The RadarA schzoid excursion into the fake plastic glitz/sorid underground duality at the heart of Los Angeles. [Winter 2010, p.64]
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For all that Liars have striven to create an original album, the songs suggest not so much inspiration and composition as hours of laborious mixing and midnight consultations with Brian Eno's "Oblique Strategies."
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MojoSisterworld's art-pop is perhaps more accessible than much of Liars' discography, but it's a sound this most restless group will likely tire of long before you do. [Mar 2010, p.98]
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Q MagazineThe dizzying "Here Comes All The People," this roller-coaster album's highlight, merges post-punk trash with whispered vocals, orchestral wizardry, funky guitar, tub-thumping drums and Snow Patrol-esque grandeur. [Apr 2010, p.115]
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Some Velvets-style beauty surfaces near the album's end, but the sense of comfort collapses into "Too Much, Too Much," a song welcoming death.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 21 out of 26
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Mixed: 2 out of 26
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Negative: 3 out of 26
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Jul 30, 2014