Liars – Mess On A Mission (Stream)

by Steven Spoerl

Liars are one of the most tirelessly unpredictable bands going right now. Don’t believe it? Go through their discography in chronological order and try to figure out how they’ve held onto a distinct sound while shape-shifting into a multitude of different genres. They’ll always have art-punk influences in their corner but at what point does their electronic fetish take over as their primary influence? It’s anyone’s best guess, really, and “Mission” continues to make it impossible to definitively pinpoint what the band is exactly. Fortunately, this allows the band to never grow stale; their endless pursuit of something different ensures that they’re always miles away from the laws of diminishing returns.

Today the band announced several key components in their upcoming March release (their follow-up to the excellent WIXIW), which will be entitled Mess. They also unveiled the album art (pictured above) and lead-off single/sort-of title track “Mess On A Misson”, which can be heard below. “Mess On A Mission” doesn’t sacrifice an ounce of the band’s nervous tension and encapsulates their artistic restlessness extraordinarily well. It also gets better on every subsequent revisit. Mess will be available on March 24th via Mute. Get excited.