The Used: A Look Back at 'Lies for the Liars'
The Used's Lies For The Liars turns 14 this year and we're gonna take a retrospective look back on the highest billboard charting album from the post-hardcore scene legends in today's article. For many fans this could have been the first album they ever heard, seeing as the success of the first single, " The Bird And The Worm'' helped push this band into many homes. The music video saw a ton of online views and saw a lot of replay on FuseTV and MTV when those were still viable sources for bands in the music scene. Now for longtime fans of the band, Lies For The Liars was the album The Used began to make their departure from their root sounds with less screaming and more pop-driven numbers, making up the tracklisting like "Earthquake." Straight up heartfelt sappy ballads like "Find A Way" may have left fans demanding a retread of "Box Full Of Sharp Objects" or a "Sound Effects And Overdramatics" with its immense display of vocal prowess of legendary frontman Bert McCracken.
I think the more pop-punk catchy hook direction creates a unique experience unlike any other before it. I felt the band came to embrace this necessity, as Bert had to have vocal surgery after the album was recorded. Intense aggressive screams were taking their toll on the singer, who has one of the most iconic screams in the genre but also clean vocals as well. You have to remember that in the early/mid 2000s proper screaming techniques and care tips weren't as abundant and at the tips of your fingers as it is now in 2021.
Bert was known for screaming until the dude puked on stage, coupled with personal demons with substance abuse and improper technique at the time. Bert's in great shape these days and has ascended his vocals to godlike territories now, an evolution for the band was necessary, to prolong the act, plus the scene was evolving to much greater heights. "The Ripper" also slaps, it's such a great deep cut that's so slept on and I recommend you stop what you're doing and put that on right now, then maybe "Wake The Dead" then the whole album, because this is some good stuff dude.
The Used “Lies For The Liars’ Booklet
The Used saw the writing on the wall for the scene. Instead of recreating what they had already mastered, they ventured off in a new direction for the band's sound. Lies For The Liars brings the legendary producer John Feldman back, who at this point had produced every album The Used had created up until that point. Feldman's production needs to be praised on this record. Listen to this album with headphones to appreciate all the depth and layers, and a wealth of string arrangements spread across the album, creating tracks rich with refreshing vibes for the band. It embraces themes of happiness, finding the one you love instead of angst and heartache, longing for the one you've lost. I feel like a track like "Smother Me" benefitted the band, creating an immensely relaxing and somber piano track that makes you feel like you're being swept away into a serene tide of an ivory ocean.
People who claim The Used lost their edge with Lies For The Liars obviously weren't aware of the diss track "Pretty Handsome Awkward" that was always heavily rumored to be about My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way, whom The Used had a falling out with. How exactly was never made clear to the public, but message boards back then always referenced this and it was always fueled further by The Used themselves in interviews and even live at Disrupt Festival in 2019. It's an awesome track though, it was in the first Transformers movie and even made it onto the soundtrack album featuring the likes of Linkin Park, Armor For Sleep, and Idiot Pilot! Random as all hell if you ask me but that's what Lies For The Liars did for The Used. It broke down a lot of walls and brought the band to successes they'd never seen before!
While a signifier as a departure from their early sound, it began an evolution for The Used as trendsetters as the scene was transitioning into this direction. EDM drum loop samples and catchy pop-driven hook vocals were poised to take over the scene as Panic! At The Disco was blowing up, Fall Out Boy, and The Used were always outcasts every scene they were ever in. Not punk enough for the punk scene, not hardcore enough for the post-hardcore sound, but what The Used did wonderfully was carve their niche with every album they made. Lies For The Liars was a personification of this attitude of a band unafraid of doing what they wanted, making a fun macabre album to display an edge of happiness that they hadn't gotten to enjoy by making upbeat positive tracks.
The album artwork needs to be referenced because it was so on point back in the day, capturing this uncanny valley Nightmare Before Christmas Hot Topic vibe that The Used helped popularize and when you look at the beautiful artwork of Alex Pardee. His art as many remembered, created the iconic hanging heart logo that many associate with the band because it's a significant piece of art that was the cover art centerpiece of In Love and Death. CHADAM is very cool. The Used even had an online animated web series for the album art creature. It's awesome, go look it up if you're wanting some deep-seated memories you may have forgotten.
The monumental presence of Lies For The Liars can still be remembered today, whether you remember playing a track on Guitar Hero or a memory of them playing awesome tracks off this album at a Taste Of Chaos or Warped Tour, the album contains some of the catchiest music the band has ever produced. Yes, perhaps some songs upon a revisit can seem a little childish and immature, maybe even cheesy with lyrics like "Liar liar, pants on fire" which can be found in the dumbfoundingly infectiously bouncy "Liar Liar (Burn In Hell)," but you gotta remember that this is a band that's always embraced its youthful rebellious spirit, and what's more rebellious than putting a demented spin on childhood nursery rhymes? We've all done it. We can't deny that.
If you haven't listened to the album, I recommend checking it out. Don't go into it expecting a screamfest, The Used already made those albums, this is them wanting to express different creative talents they had in spades. It definitely stands the test of time and with an amazing rich production for its time, it creates an atmosphere that The Used resonated with for years to come. This essentially became the sound they came to redefine and flesh out through the years, going darker and more expansive as they grew with age. It's definitely still a bop, and there's bound to be a couple of earworms that get stuck in your head if you give it a revisit for longtime fans.