Lola Ray

Liars

[3/5] If you want to have a little fun at the expense of your favorite local hipster, play them Liars, the new record by Lola Ray, as a blind taste test. Just when said hipster is at the height of flailing to the effective blend of thumping dance rock and warbling new wave, tell them that the album they’re enjoying was created by a band originally signed to the Madden brothers from Good Charlotte’s imprint label, DC Flag. Then sit back and enjoy the ensuing convulsions. Very little of the smart power-pop from Lola Ray’s pleasantly surprising 2004 debut, I Don’t Know You, remains on Liars (which the band, sans label, is issuing as an internet-only release). These Californians-turned-Brooklynites sound like they’ve just spent a long night listening to Bloc Party and the Futureheads on a Williamsburg rooftop. While Liars is solid throughout, if the majority of the disc was as memorable as the leadoff track “Officer And A Gentleman,” one might actually forget that the Ray-band recently toured with Hawthorne Heights and Sum 41. (BENEVOLENT) Brendan Manley