Search - Four Letter Lie :: Let Your Body Take Over

Great band, but mixing and producing needs work!

Jan M. Pettigrew | Chicago, IL | 11/01/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I am a avid listener of the band Four Letter Lie. Despite the fact that they do tend to lean towards a Underoath tone and do have many of the same kinds of riffs and styles, I have to say this band also brings many other different feels to the music. The first thing that got me hooked to Four Letter Lie was seeing them live. For many, the fact that the sound seems like a underoath wannabe is immediately overpowered if they do not experience them in a show. The great melodys they pull in to this record really makes each song replayable a million times without losing interest. Starting out the album was the song "Full Tilt Boogie" which couldn't have been a better choice. This song screamed power and heavyness from the start and the fact that the chorus was harmonized made it all the more tolerable to non "screamo" fans. The second song kept up the momentum and still incorporated much of the screaming from vocalist Brian Nagan. By the third song, their first single "feel like fame", things were unfortunately toned down. Now this is the song that confused me very much. I will admit it is a very catchy song and many great aspects of the band are shown within it, but for me when I got a demo of their one song and heard this, I was alittle disappointed. I was expecting heavy guitars alot of screaming and alittle harmony tracks right off the bat, but this song seemed to be a total genre change. Although there are a few scream tracks on this song, I can honestly say it is not the best track on the album.The next song up was called " The Ordinary Life" that was previously released on their older demo. Basicly everything was the same in this song but I like the build up throughout the song and I was hooked on this song long before "Let Your Body Take Over" was released. The next song "It Was Business Doing Pleasure" at first did not appeal to me because it is just a interlude that is repetative with the same chord progessions and vocal lines, but after many times of listening to the cd fully, it fits in very nicely with the songs around it. Track 8 entitled "Baby, Your My Bad Habit" is another re-release of their old song "Lets Call It A Night" on their previous demo. This song was also pretty much the same but the snyth tracks added in it makes it so much heavier and brings a cool feel to the mix. The next song "Firecracker" was a nice slow track and had nice guitar parts in it but again was alittle out of place in the mix of all the heavy songs. Another re-recorded song, "Tell me about Everything", was such an amazing new transformation from their older song. I was so impressed with the intensity the song started out with and the various guitar effects used to make it sound a bit different. The other great thing about this song is the breakdown where Brian Nagans vocals really come in to play and the drums and the guitar are so heavy its an undeniable mixture. Next up was the song "Cowboys and Indians" which had a guest track from Doug from The Sleeping. Although this song really has no structure and you can't distinguish what is a chorus or a verse or a breakdown, the song is very heavy and and an angrier song. The last song song "Rocky Loves Emily" is yet another step away from the style of their songs but remains quite heavy and ends the cd very nicely with the closing orchestral tracks added in. Musically, this cd was a good accomplishment but the mixing and production of the cd seemed to kill alot of the power in the album. Even though Matt Goldman (producer of copeland,underoath)was doing the producing on this album, it turned out so bland and dry that I was almost turned off. The guitars seem to be thin and lifeless and very quiet in the mix. The drums are also very quiet in the mix and seem to have a boxy and tame sound to them. The vocals seem to be recorded very well and were perfect in the mix. The only thing that was really way to loud was the bass guitar. It seemed to be turned up louder than any of the guitars and in no way made the mix in the song sound better. Bass lines are meant to be a glue that holds together the drums and the rest of the guitars but should not overpower everything else. Other than these disappointments, I was happy with this bands music and cannot wait to see the production and sound of their next one!"

Four Letter Lie ~Let Your Body Take Over~

RaY RaY Pine | Philly | 01/06/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Is it any surprise that a band that seems to have fashioned themselves after Underoath are being produced by Matt Goldman (of Underoath fame)? Let Your Body Take Over manages to find the small niche that Underoath missed; the progression from They're Only Chasing Safety and Define the Great Line.



Four Letter Lie combines the guitar heavy tone of Define the Great Line (""Full Tilt Boogie"") with the pop hooks (""Naked Girl Avalanche"") that TOCS was filled with. But don't be fooled, Underoath isn't the only band that these guys are borrowing from thought as it's hard to hear ""Feel Like Fame"" and not pick up a Fall Out Boy vibe.



It's almost impossible at this point to invent anything new in the screamo genre and most bands realize that. Bands are refining their sound as opposed to redefining it and with some bands that works just fine. Four Letter Lie falls soundly in that category--they're not doing anything new and probably wont do anything new in the future--but what they do is high grade pop screamo at it's very best!"