tss Boom cha boom boom cha. Robert Edwards starts the song. Vibrations echo from a guitar. Random bass noise. Then in come the chords ringing from Billie's guitar with a hint of tremolo. It is a full watery sound from just the frontman and drummer. Du du du dundun dudu du du dundun. The bass comes pounding in. Vin plays his guitar softly. Billie sounds cocky and pissed off singing the first verse in the upper register of his vocal range. The result is a thick sound with an irresistible melody. Everyone has just the right touch to get good head bop in but refrain from the head banging at least for now. ;)

Billie sings the album title "Lie in" aggressively. It is a command. The lush rhythmic platform from the rest of the band gives him the perfect mood to sing smoothly to the fans to suck them in to the album. The groove of the bass and the gleaming, erudite melody have an almost psychedelic effect. You can't just dip your feet in to this track you have to plunge in and soak in a of its cool, crisp flows at once, as one cohesive piece of music.

Then the rhythm picks up. Vin Peters switches from a high pitched atmospheric swelling of sound to direct drumming hunk of the song's sonic universe. Not just the guitar, but the bass and the drums are perfectly in sync. The new rhythm is higher energy. It builds and builds and remains rich and full. Billie Beckett's lyrics compliment the change perfectly as he switches to what may be called the chorus. He sounds accusing when he bellows "Were you up in the houses/or were you down building Noah's Ark." As the final lyrics are sung the lead guitar rings out in a series of sustained notes. The bass thrashes quickly quickly as the drums keep strong and ready.

The ringing of the guitar chords showers back in to the song. The sweet melody sings and flows from lyric to lyric. It is catchy too. By the second verse comes it is familiar. The kind of melodic song you would like to take home and have over for dinner and absorb yourself in for hours upon hours. :P But Reported Failure does not want their music to be too available or too cuddly. There is a break. Vin plays arpeggio style, Billie lets it ring, Matt plays every whole note, and Robert lets loose a powerful drumroll. This is upheld as Billie sings softly rater than yelling "Burn it to the ground"

They could have let it rip right then, but Reported Failure can be a big tease sometimes playing and caressing and seducing the fans. The climax has not come, but another chorus builds the anticipation and tension further. The song longs to explode in to a million pieces but the refrain further locks the melody and rhythm in to the mind of the listener. Vin sweeps his pick across the strings creating an eerie layer to the buildup. The beat gets harder. Another chorus. Guitars are louder. Bass thunders. BUM BUM BUM. Silence. "YEAH" screams Billie.

Reported Failure unleashes a hurricane of metal. Vin's riff is fast and furious. Robert slams his drums. Matt slaps and hammers the bass. Billie wrecks the guitar while screaming in a lustful haze of rock and roll. But Billie Beckett steps aside. Vin Peters guitar God and sexiest man alive lets it rip sliding and zooming with a wicked waxy tone from one string to the next hammering on and pulling off and crafting a gorgeous sing-song solo that is swift as a serpent. Billie sounds satisfied singing "I know where to find gasoline." The whole band keeps going and then suddenly they stop. The song is over.

Lyrically, "Lie in" is a puzzling song. The lyrics "Lie in," "lion," and "lyin'" are pronounced exactly the same, but have different meanings. Billie Beckett is certainly clever and loves to play with his audience. The exact meaning of these lines that sound the same is unclear, but a lack of clarity seems to be the point, and perhaps the only meaning we can know. For most of the song Billie is addressing a subject, "you," and he sounds like he is accusing the subject of a certain failure to act suggested by lines like "Were you up in the houses/or were you down building Noah's ark." He also uses lots of metaphors about hunting and eating violence with lines like "thirsting for blood," "show your teeth," and "let this lion eat."

While most of the song is indirect and full of ambiguous metaphor, the second verse is more accessible as Billie sings about riots referencing "West Florissant Avenue" where buildings burned in Ferguson, Missouri riots last year. Billie later says "burn it to the ground" which suggests that he sympathizes with protesters and is himself fed up with a system ripe with injustices. Fed up in fact describes the tone of the song overall. Billie sounds like someone someone sick of the world full of evil that comes with no warning.


Where were you
When the world came true
Were you watching it all with your own eyes
And were you ready to make the hunt

And I dont know you
But here's what I think is true
Whenever evil comes its no surprise
And there's no warning

Lie in
Lie in come
Lie with me
Ooo Wo

Lion
Lion come
Let it roar let it roar
Ooo Wo

When he rustled in the bushes
When he wandered after dark
Oh were you up in the houses
Or were you down building Noah's ark
Well now he's wandering the cities
And now hes thirsting for blood
And everyone smells tasty
Now that marble is turned to mud

There were riots all this week
People were fighting the police
And freedom was chocked out
That night the army came to town

Look down and you'll see the world
Its burning on West Florissant Avenue
Where people get killed
Just for looking differently than I do

Lyin'
Lyin' wont
Get me lyin' down
Ooo Wo

Lion
Lion come
Burn this town
To the ground

Burn it to the ground
Burn it to the ground

When he rustled in the bushes
When he wandered after dark
Oh were you up in the houses
Or were you down building Noah's ark
Well now he's wandering the cities
And now hes thirsting for blood
And everyone smells tasty
Now that marble is turned to mud

YEAH

I know where to find gasoline gasoline
We can make the deluge hurt
Like the end of the world
Like the end of the world
Its on its on so sow your teeth
Come on and show your teeth
Let this lion eat
So lie in with me