Okay, so let’s check out this piece of work. The first thing you notice about the album sleeve is the sober artwork. A big eagle, red star and some Latin phrase “Nobis, Pro Lemma, Vobis”. According to Wikipedia this means “For us, for them, for you”, a lyric from the somewhat basic song ‘Burn Burn’ from Start Something. Would they have returned to their hardcore roots? The back of the sleeve reveals yet another surprise: a total make-over! Lostprophets now looks very Franz Ferdinand-ish. Though these guys have always looked stylish, it never seemed unnatural. Now it does, it’s over-styled, hip and far from rock ‘n’ roll.

 

Now to the music. As you can probably read from the introduction, I like Lostprophets’ previous efforts. This time they’ve disappointed me. They’ve obviously tried to move towards the pop-end of the spectrum to get some connection with hit bands such as Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party. On the other hand there’s still some influences from their proven successful crossover style. What you get is a bit of everything resulting in a sum worth nothing.

 

The production is slick but has lost the richly layered depth from Start Something. It’s overall probably most comparable to the aforementioned song ‘Burn Burn’, which I personally consider one of the weakest songs of Start Something. No more warm electronica, this time it’s flat guitar pop songs, with here and there some back-up singing, tambourines or staccato piano playing. Furthermore the vocals have definitely lost class. On track three ‘The New Transmission’ the voice of singer Ian is so extremely digitally adjusted that it reminds me of Cher’s vocals on that crap song ‘Believe’. Track five ‘Can’t Stop, Gotta Date With Hate’ sounds like an up-tempo cheap Nickelback tearjerker. The obligatory ballad ‘4:A.M. Forever’, starts out as an emotional semi-acoustic song. But when the chorus kicks in all tension gets swept away. The grotesqueness and outcries are so over the top that song loses all relevance.

 

Lostprophets have always managed to be catchy without getting cheesy. On Liberation Transmission they’ve crossed that line. It's an album that has to be forgotten quickly. Lostprophets have to come up with something better next time to retain their significance.