Often moody and dark, Lise Liddell’s songs certainly aren’t the wan ear-candy fluff you can sing the words to after half a listen. Lover’s Moon is one of those albums that sneaks up on you – and beats you over the head with a bear club when it finally locates your functioning brain cells. Hiding beneath the ambient soft rock façade are lyrics that aren’t so soft – or ambient. “You've seen what meets the eye, but there's a lot more lying there / and when you see me naked, you may not wish to stare.” Ouch! And what the hell? “Damage To My Soul” pulls no lyrical punches either. “If I got down on my knees / and gave you the very last part of me / you’d swear my heart was a royal liar / and throw me back into your funeral pyre.” In 20004, Lise was selected “Best Songwriter” in the annual Houston Press reader’s poll and shortly after she was back in the studio, this time in Australia. The result was In the Wake. More accessible than Lover’s Moon, In the Wake met with a round of solid reviews. Houston Press music critic John Nova Lomax wrote, “Lise Liddell went all the way down under -- to Brisbane, to be exact -- to record this album, and it sounds like some of the songs were written "under" something else … a table, perhaps, or certainly a dark cloud. At any rate, Liddell's pop-rockin' Americana is best when her slightly surreal lyrics are booziest and blackest. There's "Break My Body," with lines like "If I could smoke you away / drink you away, sex you away / It'd be worth the price I'd pay." Or "You Get What You Ask For," where Liddell says, "I've been settlin'; I've been strugglin' / I've been settlin': I've been sufferin' for not much of your heart." The prestigious FolkWax magazine did an extensive two-part interview with Liddell in which J. Terrill described In the Wake as “a perfect album for people who thrive on living complicated lifestyles, but are able to reflect upon the tragedies with which they surround themselves; and for those who like their country-folk music with a bit of a bite.” 2008 finds Liddell performing solo and working up material for her next project, making ready for what she describes as her “next sound experiment.” Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.