Album Review: SCREENS - Lie Lie Lie

 

It's not the first time we've heard from Tel Aviv's post-punk trio SCREENS here at NNWNF. The band have been active since 2015, led by Avidan Ezra on guitars and vocals, Yuval Rozin on bass and Omri Elazary on drums. Drawing inspiration from the classics of UK punk and post-punk past like The Clash, The Cure and Wire, the band also have a shared love of newer American acts who wander into similar territory, such as Preoccupations, Parquet Courts and Protomartyr. However, there is much more to the band's sonic pallete than that.

Ryan Doyle Elward took a deep dive with the band's new Lie Lie Lie album and gave us these insights. 

The previous record from SCREENS grouped together the high sheen, poppier elements of 90s' and early 00s' punk and rock, giving everything a buoyancy that’s since been weighed down on their latest release. Lie Lie Lie presents an evolving veneer and proves ungovernable by any single category of music. Black Sabbath is mixed with Bouncing Souls is mixed with INXS. 

A spinning kaleidoscope of 70s heavy metal and moody 80s emo-electronic, this nine-song catalog acts as a reference library, creating a kind of Tour de Punk-Rock, much like Titus Andronicus did with ‘My Eating Disorder’ on Local Business.

Leadoff song ‘Easy on the Eyes’ followed by ‘False Revolt’ are a series of tone trials, solidifying the wax seal so signature to SCREENS' sound, which traverses vibrant distortion, sludge, and the voltaic solos that folks forgot still work when done well. Well and with innovation, as their scalic style never falls back on blues’ box conventionality and instead brings out both harmonic minors and Byzantine double-harmonic majors, examples being toward the forty second mark in the former of the two and briefly at the end of ‘Lately’.

Lie Lie Lie is a handful of twisting wires. Separately wrapped but sheathed as one conduit that is cohesive and can be interpreted as a brilliant assemblage of tracks which each in their own way elicit surprisal. Transitions are polished but unpredictable and consequently compelling. 

There is a theatrical flair to it, even. Try minute 1:02 compared to 1:41 in ‘False Revolt’. These are scene changes, and it’s an occasion which calls for beating on the steering wheel as they collide.

The title track ‘Lie Lie Lie’ is a politically charged, no punches pulled criticism of complacency that sits mid-album and launches the grimmer second half where it’s sensitive subjects and gruff vocals. ‘Lately’ and ‘Standing Still’ are practically suites, song pairs stuck in a dark aspic of memory and remorse, going from isolating goth to a near-Iron Maiden finale, then straight to a Bloc Party-esque opening met with a rumbly AFI closure.

Lie Lie Lie continuously builds bright momentum only to disintegrate again into a dystopian calm. It gathers good energy and slides deep into discordance soon after. That their thematic nexus is so far hard to figure out is the triumph in their formula and a welcomed fact of their music.

                                    r.d.e

Visit the band's official Website for more info, buy from their Bandcamp and follow on Instagram and Facebook 

📷 - Gefen Reznik