Thieves and Liars – When Dreams Become Reality

I think some background information on this band is in order before I really get into this review. All of this information is coming out of the press package I got with this cd.

“The San Diego-based power trio have spent the last several years constructing a concept record that will saturate your senses and take you on an epic journey of dreams and betrayal, loss and hope. The Zeppelin-meets-Floyd production came through a painstaking transfer process. Using recording techniques from the late 60’s and early 70’s, the band tracked most of the record live, giving the songs a very natural and warm sound.”

When it comes to “epic journeys” or anything to do with classic rock, I am completely out of my element. In fact, I began listening to punk as an alternative to classic rock. Sure, it’s great when a band is proficient on their instruments and their music is accessible to a huge base of the population because of its general appeal; but I like punk and hardcore because it’s the opposite. When I listen to Trash Talk orCeremony, people cringe; that music is fucking vicious (I adore the violent hardcore thing). I’m not living in the 70’s, I don’t want to sit down and let superb musicianship “blow me away” (I always find it really pretentious when a classic-rock music snob tells me to listen to Zepplin or Pink Floyd because they’re life-altering).

Thieves and Liars is talented, there’s no denying that. They could probably have been a big thing had they come around in the early 70’s. Yet here I am in 2008 thinking to myself, “Am I really ready for a classic rock revival?” That’s not a rhetorical question, my answer is no. I just wonder if the “rock and/or roll” purists are even ready for one. If I had a nickel for every time one of those jerks gave me a “look that could kill” every time I put to describing my hatred for Pink Floyd. My point being that they aren’t generally accepting, in this case, of a band that apes their influences to the last note (for a complete list of their influences, play the classic rock songs on the guitar hero games). I got some pretty heavy Stevie Ray Vaughn, Led Zepplin, southern rock vibes off most of the songs.

I suppose the last aspect that I’d like to address is this album being a concept record. Concept records have a nasty habit of descending into a myriad of half-intelligible metaphors held together solely by a chorus or verse that just barely manages to keep the topic at hand moving along. Being that every band has a “poet” at hand, ready to spew 30-50 minutes worth of the aforementioned contrived metaphors; a concept album becomes a treacherous task to succeed at. The concept of “When Dreams Become Reality” is the story of Joseph. I’m assuming that “Joseph” is one of the many Bible Joseph’s, because this band is of the Christian camp (I’m not going to bash Christian’s, there’s like 1.5 billion of them and one of me; not to mention Facedown is more or less a Christian label, so I’ve come to expect getting music from Christian bands). I’m not completely sure which one, but depictions of a man in a multi-colored coat enduring slavery and hardship and eventually freedom in the album art might just be an indication. But I digress, the lyrics to this album fall prey to the evils of the “abstract concept album.” Without the guidance of the album art or a Wikipedia synopsis of the story of Joseph from genesis (see the Bible), I would not have known what they were talking about. Even with them, it was still vague.

When it comes down to it, this album was listenable; I just don’t really enjoy classic rock (could I be biased in this review?). As far as a classic rock revival that this band is reputed to be attempting to lead, I think that may be an overstatement. I think there are a good number of bands trying to resurrect classic rock (could it be that people are lacking creativity?). I’m not sure if I’m alone when I say this, but I really wish Jason Dunn and Facedown had kept their release trend from last year going (it would be sweet if there was more activity from No Innocent Victim too). Even if most of the releases were more or less metal, I enjoyed them. But what do I know? Check out Thieves and Liars, perhaps I’m just blind to their sheer awesomeness or something.