By Tammy Tran

After a disappointing second album from The Used, the band’s newest release, entitled “Lies for the Liars,” came out this past May. Fans were highly anticipating this third album to be phenomenal and compensate for the disaster that was their sophomore release. Thankfully, they knew enough not to call it their “comeback.” Although it wasn’t as awful as Ms. Spears’ performance at the VMAs, fans were less than impressed. It would be incorrect to label this album horrible, but it was mediocre at best.

From their self-titled debut album in 2002, The Used gained the reputation for being a hardcore band. This first work was full of songs that were heavy, raw and featured screamo vocals by Bert McCracken; many of these original characteristics are lacking in the new record and, in fact, are only really found in their first three songs: “The Ripper,” “Pretty Handsome,” and “The Bird and The Worm,” which oddly starts off very similar to the Fall Out Boy single “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race.”

The songs that follow all just seem overproduced and mainly geared for the radio.

Tracks like “Paralyzed” and “With Me Tonight” have such a pop-y quality that it’s a shock to find them on an album from The Used. Even the dance rhythm/beat, which is quite catchy and enjoyable, doesn’t feel as though it quite belongs.

Passion also seems to be lacking from this album with lyrics lacking the meaning they once had. The track “Liar Liar (Burn in Hell)” finds the line “Liar liar pants on fire”-yes, the same uttered on playgrounds around the world. It becomes ever-present that the lyrics are just awful when the ballads of the album start playing. The emotions presented feel fake, almost like an episode of a soap opera.

It is true that The Used tried to experiment, which is respectable, but in the end, it doesn’t really work out for them except on the self-made percussion of “Find a Way.”

Overall this album isn’t a complete train wreck, but the good times of songs like “Blue and Yellow” or “The Taste of Ink” remain only as memories to fans.

The Used

Lies for Liars 2 1/2