CMU Approved

Approved: Real Lies

By | Published on Monday 2 December 2013

Real Lies

Real Lies’ only real secret – which isn’t really a secret anyway – is that they have friends in high places, or rather, Vice places, the three-piece’s Kev Kharas being online editor at Vice.

I say ‘secret’ – they’re really quite transparent in that respect, neither denying nor making a big deal of the slim, slim chance that nepotism may have played a bit-part in the way their very first video, ‘Deeper’, appeared straight away on sites like the Vice-tied i-D and other places where Kharas has contacts in his editor guise, like the good old Quietus.

So, with the Vice elephant clearly labeled and heaved aside, let’s step on to ‘Deeper’ itself, which swims in the same slick, streamlined circles as the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘West End Girls’, taking dips in chemical synth waves and pooling all its nostalgic might via a ‘classic’ rave-era keys line.

Talking about the track, and the ways Real Lies engage with their inherent ‘manliness’ with the Quietus, in a chat that sketches the band as a ‘Deeper’-thinking breed of ‘anti-#lad’, the trio’s Tom Watson says: “A lot of it is to do with masculinity. To go back to the smoking area, the drop in ‘Deeper’ was recorded in smoking area in a club, I think the cover art really brings that vulnerability of masculinity out too”.

Kharas adds: “[Masculinity] never gets enough attention. It gets caricatured. People don’t understand that there are nuances, not every man has to conform to type. There’s nothing more offensive than those Ginsters adverts about Movember and how you need brown sauce to have a fucking sandwich. Come on mate. I find that very limiting. I think with the haircut thing [on the sleeve artwork] there’s the vulnerability, you’re trusting a man with something that’s quite important”.

Well. Whilst I’ve no way of knowing if that’s really the case, or if the sensitivity thing is all an act, ‘Deeper’ is still a great pop song. As is Real Lies’ newer single, ‘World Peace’, the caliber of both of which I realise I’ve probably tainted by starting with the Vice thing. Which really isn’t important. Anyway review ‘World Peace’ and ‘Deeper’ here:



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