The Beautiful Liar＜Yellow Vinyl＞

With 2021s The Beautiful Liar, New Yorks X Ambassadors offer a wry concept album rife with emotive pop hooks that also makes room for thoughtful, often theatrical ruminations on war, and the troubling way political and economic power brokers command our daily lives with money, fearmongering, and untruths. Its a bold production, framed by an audio-book conceit where a narrator is reading you the -- completely made-up — novel The Beautiful Liar by author Irving P. Neville. Theres even a mid-album sponsor break that reinforces many of the underlying themes of the album. While none of the songs tie directly into the audio-book, the thematic ideas all work in tandem, reinforcing the growing darkness and unease that permeates ever more as the album progresses. Also adding to the surreality of the production are a handful of giddy novelty cuts, including a 56-second Conversations with my Friends that sounds something like Hunter S. Thompson reading an anti-war poem with Bad Brains. Theres also the bemusing protest song-meets-1930s Broadway number Theater of War in which singer Sam Harris does his best Jimmy Durante impression. Conceptual conceits aside, there are some great songs here, and tracks like My Own Monster, Love Is Death, and Reincarnation find X Ambassadors further expanding their infectious blend of gothy R&B, electronica, and hip-hop-influenced stadium rock. That many of these songs also find them exploring some of the bigger, more troubling issues in society, lends the album a weight that nicely counterbalances the Disney theme park insanity of the audio-book elements. The Beautiful Liar is a quirky, oddly intriguing experience, whose conceptual elements interrupt the corporate pop flow of the album, and one imagines X Ambassadors wouldnt have it any other way. ~ Matt Collar

NYのオルタナ・ロック・バンドによる2年ぶりのニュー・アルバム。セルフ・プロデュースに加え、リゾやシーロー・グリーンらを手掛けたリッキー・リードら数多くの外部プロデューサーを起用し、楽曲はよりエモーショナルに力強さを増している。アルバム全体はメッセージ性の強いポエトリー・リーディングを挿んだコンセプト作ながら、決してシリアスになりすぎず、アイロニックな雰囲気なのが良いですね。
bounce (C)赤瀧洋二