Liar Thief Bandit – Deadlights
Release Date: 14th May 2021
Label: The Sign Records
Bandcamp
Genre: 70’s Rock, Garage Rock, 90’s Rock.
FFO: The Hives, Grande Royale, D.A.D.
Review By: Paul Franklin
Describing their sound as 70’s garage rock combined with 90’s modern rock, Liar Thief Bandit slot very neatly into line alongside their Scandinavian contemporaries who proliferate the genre. Deadlights is the third album from the trio, and, as the genre demands, it’s 42 minutes of power chords, meaty hooks and infectious choruses topped with some tasty guitar licks.
One of those licks kicks off the opening title track (which at four and a quarter minutes is the longest on the album) then fuzzy guitars and a snappy snare ensure that there is no doubt that you’re in for some energetic, no-frills rock’n’roll. To be honest there is then very little variety over the next eleven tracks, but that’s not the point. After all, look at the eight movies (and a couple of spin offs) that make up the Fast and Furious franchise. You don’t watch them for complex plotlines or meaningful character development, you just want to be entertained for two hours by a cool, moody bald guy and his mates driving fast cars and crashing into the bad guys in their slightly less fast cars. LTB have the same ambition for short-term maximum entertainment which they achieve with aplomb.
Some catchy vocal harmonies lift up Catch and Release, whilst Feather sees some melodic ‘Oooh, oooh, oooh’s slide in amongst the blazing guitar work. The strutting, bass grooves that anchor I’ve Got a Lot of Money Coming In are the ideal match for the tongue-in-cheek boastfulness of the title. Starting with just Mike Jacobson’s faint guitar and vocals for the first minute, the stripped back Forever the Optimist is the closest the band gets to a power ballad.
No doubt a band that would have the sweat dripping from the walls in a club show, on record LTB are probably best summed up by the track Good Enough, it’s an unavoidable, hard hitting three-minute blast of garage rock that declares sometimes “Being good is good enough”.
(3.5 / 5)
