ALBUM REVIEW: Billy Liar – Crisis Actor (Pirates Press Records)
Billy Liar is a punk singer-songwriter from Edinburgh who has emerged from the folk-punk genre.
Like Frank Turner before him, he started out as a solo artist playing acoustically to unleashing his true potential with a full band, and it’s in the latter guise we find him here.
He released his debut EP in 2006, and, after a string of EPs and singles, his first album, Lies Lied Live, eventually emerged in 2015.
His debut studio full-length Some Legacy came out in 2019 on US label Red Scare Industries, and Crisis Point is the follow-up, and his first release for Pirates Press.
Billy Liar has toured the UK, Europe, Australia and the US, as well as being a regular at Rebellion Festival in Blackpool.
I’m ashamed to say that somehow he’d passed me by until this album dropped into my inbox for review. But that’s clearly my loss, as I love it.
It’s entirely fitting that the aforementioned Frank Turner guests on Crisis Point, because Billy Liar is clearly cut from the same cloth.
Social problems
He sings about some of the social problems of the day, as well as more personal subjects, and it’s all delivered with bagfuls of passion and conviction.
Crisis Actor erupts into action with lead single Oblivion, which sets the tone for what’s to follow as Liar defiantly delivers a message of hope and perseverance.
Frank Turner makes an appearance on Negroni, where our man is “staring into my glass I swear the ice cubes are judging me,” and the duet feels like the most natural one in the world.
He’s not the only special guest; Franz Nicolay (The Hold Steady) contributes keys on several songs, including Oblivion and standout track Baltimore, where Liar observes “this ain’t living, I’m dying to stay alive”.
Speaking out
Elsewhere, Failure Factory is a pacey Ramones-like number about going to school in the sort of dead-end place which offers no hope for the future, while Ostrich is about burying your head in the sand and not speaking out.
The scratchy guitar and earnest voice on Don’t Trust Anyone recalls no less a troubadour than Billy Bragg before the full band kicks in and we go all Pixies/Smashing Pumpkins.
Hogmanay sounds like The Pogues celebrating New Year’s Eve on speed as our hero declares “if the world ended right now I couldn’t even care”.
Finally, Billy reverts to type for the closing Troubled Mind. It’s just him and his acoustic guitar as he sings about looking for answers to mental struggles.
Intensity
He’s clearly wary about what he finds, admitting: “I’m searching for a diagnosis/But no one will understand it’s not all I am,” and putting so much intensity into the song that you fear for a moment that he might be unravelling.
Crisis Actor is an album which is rousing, intense and moving on many different levels, and I’d recommend it to anyone who loves heartfelt music, and not just punk rock. 8.5/10.
