Liam Singer Reviewed

Liam Singer
Our Secret Lies Beneath The Creek
(Tell-All)

While this collection would surely be more intriguing had The Creek meant the actor, Liam Singer’s post rocking of classical music will do.

The Sufjan Stevens overtones of Our Secret Lies Beneath The Creek are more a result of Stevens’ current ubiquity. Singer laces his piano-based constructions with a more straightforward modality and less cryptic sourcing, resulting in oft-intriguing, sometimes confounding compositons that sound more like film score than personal blooming. The easiest way into his mind is through his vocal pieces — oddly double tracked to match Elliott Smith — though his flourishes on the 88s reveal an indulgent virtuosity (see “Surprise Surprise”) and a firm grasp of sacred music structures. He invokes opera (“Seven Months”), Tori Amos (“One Breath Out”), and eventually Stevens (“If You Awoke”), but never seems to run the songs off the same stem. Recorded and mixed by ambient empresario Scott Solter, it’s a trifle confusing how the songs failed to grasp a theme despite being so connected by the piano. Right now Singer’s skills are outmaneuvering his focus.

4

— Kevin Keegan

Category: Spins, Weekly