Rating: ***
Liam Torres seems like a pretty weird dude. He's a country guy at heart, but he also seems pretty obsessed with UFOs and the paranormal. That's an odd mix. It seems to work though, as his 10,000+ fans on Facebook can attest.
He has a project called Alien Country that recently released an album called "Like My Life Depends On It" this Summer. The artwork is rad, and their fanbase is rabid and growing. All of this intrigues me.
But how does it sound? Is it good or just weird? Is it weird at all? Maybe the band name and country music combination is just to throw us off and it's actually mild af.
There's really only one way to find out. Beam me up Scotty. Let's do this.
Watch the lyric video to "Tell Me So" on Youtube here:
Track one is "So-Called Friends" and I'm kinda blown away. This isn't weird at all. Dude can really sing. He almost has an R&B voice. Nice vibrato. A little of that can go a long way though. "Reality Check" is next. It's another solid melodic modern country western tune. A little more twangy vocally. I liked it. "Forced Game" has that familiar fiddle. It's getting a little bit weirder now. That's good. It doesn't really sound like anything else. "Desire" is a bluesier vibe for sure. The production is strange, but I'm into it. Track five is "Told Me So". It's a jam this one. Fun. I do like how the album has gotten progressively stranger the deeper we get. The first two tracks were almost traditional sounding. Not anymore. "I Can't Say I Blame You" is a duet. From a pure "do I enjoy listening to this?" standpoint, this one is great. It's not as odd as some of the other tracks, but it's good and the voices mesh well. "Mommy Dearest" is a gorgeous fiddle song that does actually make you think of the old Joan Crawford biopic where she was portrayed by Faye Dunaway. "Remedy" sounds like Alien Ant Farm doing country. It's a miss for me. "Going To Enjoy This" is another late 90's rock-sounding tune and I don't think this is the best look for them. That said, I prefer this one to "Remedy". "Hold Me" is a slower number than the rest and it's a good change of pace. It has a They Might Be Giants feel to it. That's a good thing. "How It Could Have Been" gets us back to the country roots of the album. One of the stronger tracks on a pretty forgettable string of tunes. "No One is Coming For You Tonight" is a rockabilly wrecker. Another strong track here towards the end of the record. The "Remedy" remix seemed unnecessary at first, but I actually like this version better.
There's enough here to call it good. It's just that there's a four-song stretch in the middle of the album that is not good. This is one of those albums that could have been a four-star affair if it was only a ten track record. That said, it's odd and strong in parts with some seriously good tracks. Just not enough of them to be great. I still recommend giving it a spin.