The Used

Lies For The Liars

Used frontman Bert McCracken really needs to chill on his carping about bands in the scene making grand gestures. Lies For The Liars doesn’t sound like any records by the Police or Queen because it’s covered in contemporary studio sheen so thick, you can make black-box recorders out of it. The opening track, “The Ripper,” is filled with electronic loops, samples and time-stretching hiccups just short of a passport to VNV Nation. A choir of multi-tracked McCrackens sings of geeks and backpacks in the hyperactive power ballad “The Bird And The Worm,” the best emo James Bond theme ever written. The swinging “Paralyzed” boasts couplets like “Everyone’s got the same old antics/Back and forth like some walking spastic,” thereby revealing the band’s Broadway ambitions in Warped Tour: The Awesome Musical, Dude. Theoretically, these moments should make the Used worthy of a beatdown, but because their energy matches their vision (gotta mention “Wake The Dead”), they’ve managed to make the best record of their career thus far.

So, Bertram, lighten up. You might claim more cred ’cause your new jams are Liza Minnelli-free, but you still dog-eared every page of producer John Feldmann’s Pro Tools manual. (Respect to session drummer Dean Butterworth, who definitely earned his check on this one.) But who cares—Lies still rocks harder than the assembly line of Hinder assclowns Clear Channel is currently pimping.

ROCKS LIKE:
Fall Out Boy’s Infinity On High
Men, Women & Children's Men, Women & Children
The Used's, In Love And Death

Reprise