Ritual | Under the Radar Magazine Under the Radar | Music Blog for the Indie Music Magazine
Wednesday, April 24th, 2024  

White Lies

Ritual

Geffen

Jan 21, 2011 White Lies Bookmark and Share


At the outset, things may seem easy for a band that sounds an awful lot like other bands—they’re easy to define, people find them without much trouble (You like Interpol? You should try White Lies!), and there’s a track laid out for them. The problem is, a band like White Lies constantly stands next to one of those “You Must Be This Tall to Ride” measuring sticks. White Lies is not as complicated musically or lyrically as Interpol, not as gloomy as Editors, and nowhere near as dangerous and sexy as Joy Division.

A song such as “Strangers,” from their second album, Ritual, feels very much paint by numbers: chugging guitars, spooky keyboards, dark and massive vocals. Vocalist Harry McVeigh sometimes sounds surprisingly flat and the soaring notes don’t quite get off the ground. His lyrics also fall flat, “Hold tight for heartbreak/Buckle up for loneliness.” On occasion, he can put together some images that start to conjure a feeling (“Dead dreams and dirty clothes”), but then he falls back on clichés (“Can anybody hear me?/Is anybody out there?”). More than that, though, McVeigh seems to either clog lines with too many syllables or not enough, sometimes in back-to-back lines, giving the songs a herky jerky stop-start.

The rest of the band doesn’t fare much better. Rather than the angular attack of Joy Division or the swooning changes of Interpol, White Lies bring a little sunshine through the clouds, with a softer keyboard edge and the aforementioned chugging guitars. This inspiration through darkness method could work, but the band doesn’t reach the peak to which they’re aspiring. Unfortunately, they’re not quite tall enough yet to ride the same coaster as Editors, much less Interpol, much, much less Joy Division. (www.whitelies.com)

Author rating: 3/10

Rate this album
Average reader rating: 5/10



Comments

Submit your comment

Name Required

Email Required, will not be published

URL

Remember my personal information
Notify me of follow-up comments?

Please enter the word you see in the image below:

Dickie
February 1st 2011
10:22pm

When I was given their debut album I was told that I should like them because I like Joy Division and Interpol. I was told that the music was dark and that the excellent lyrics were delivered with a real passion from a unique voice. Then I listened to the album.
I cannot possibly get across how much I hate that album and the band which produced it. A friend tried to win me over to them by playing me excerpts from this new album. His bruises will heal in time but he will have to learn to adapt to life with one foot.
I like almost all music at some level - a band or even an entire genre may not click with me but I can at the very least appreciate the work that went into producing it. White Lies are about the only band/act to which that feeling does not apply - on any level. They are to music what terminal brain cancer is to me - the promise of extreme and unbearable pain followed only by death.
They rely for lyrics upon the diaries of 14 year old girls whose fascinations swing from death to the crush they have on their English teacher. For music they simply copy Duran Duran and filter it through a mixing desk with auto beats and “Scary Effects” switched to the on position.
Ronan Keating has done less evil under the guise of making music than White Lies. Thats right, I said it! Ronan Keating is less horrifically bad than White Lies. Ronan Keating could do a lounge music remake of the entire Faith No More back catalogue and he would still have done less damage to music and to the world than White Lies have managed in two unbelievably bad albums.

kyle
February 22nd 2011
9:32pm

Good review of this album over at http://www.syffal.com

home loans
April 10th 2011
5:26am

Some time before, I needed to buy a car for my corporation but I didn’t earn enough money and couldn’t buy anything. Thank God my colleague proposed to try to get the personal loans at trustworthy bank. So, I did so and used to be satisfied with my consolidation loan.

JimenezFaith
January 2nd 2012
7:46am

That’s well known that cash makes people disembarrass. But what to do when somebody has no cash? The one way is to receive the loan or just student loan.

GrettY
March 8th 2012
11:58pm

what an fantastic web page. The info helps me with my basic research. I am attending college and I have a term paper to produce. I was likely to get custom essays USA on the web, nevertheless your site has assisted me address authors block and so i find that I’m able to continue on my own. Appreciate it all for this great content.

LIDIACARTER22
April 12th 2012
4:39am

Do not enough cash to buy some real estate? You not have to worry, just because this is possible to take the business loans to resolve such kind of problems. Therefore take a sba loan to buy all you require.

PETRAHolloway35
May 28th 2012
3:28am

It’s great that we can get the loan and that opens up completely new chances.

mortgage loans
June 21st 2012
7:08pm

If you’re in the corner and have no money to move out from that point, you would have to receive the mortgage loans goodfinance-blog.com. Just because it would aid you unquestionably. I take auto loan every year and feel myself fine because of that.

JACOBSKarin35
July 31st 2012
8:04am

Don’t have cash to buy a building? You should not worry, because that’s available to get the credit loans to solve such kind of problems. Thus take a consolidation loan to buy all you want.

SMITHJohanna
August 7th 2012
9:52pm

All people deserve very good life time and mortgage loans or commercial loan will make it better. Because freedom depends on money.

Jensen21Briana
January 12th 2013
12:15am

Some time before, I really needed to buy a building for my corporation but I did not have enough money and could not order something. Thank God my colleague proposed to take the business loans at trustworthy creditors. So, I acted that and was happy with my short term loan.

LauriVincent28
February 17th 2013
3:29pm

Some time ago, I really needed to buy a good car for my business but I didn’t have enough money and couldn’t purchase anything. Thank goodness my colleague adviced to try to take the personal loans at banks. Thus, I did that and used to be happy with my auto loan.

LopezStephanie
February 19th 2013
5:59am

Every one acknowledges that our life is not cheap, however people need money for various issues and not every one earns big sums money. Hence to get some personal loans and just car loan should be a right way out.

LethaRasmussen
June 18th 2013
11:52am

Order essay custom from respectful writing centre and acquire perfect writing help. Visit this website and all your troubles will fade away.

LambJocelyn21
June 21st 2013
1:50pm

I must confirm that buying already written essays at online paper writing services is a fantastic think. Do not ruin the chance to buy paper writing that will help you to get high marks.

CAREYSheena
August 28th 2013
8:26pm

But if pupils lack of skills to compose papers by themselves, they only should to go to their site and request assistance in research essay writing from top notch custom paper writing service.

FROSTALYSON
November 2nd 2013
7:04pm

We generally strived to develop the essay writing service uk that would be the first aid for students. We realized our target offering supreme writing services. College students count on us because we are the most trustworthy!

NewmanALEXANDRIA
November 3rd 2013
9:37am

admirable that you has ultimately developed a self empowerment procedure that is universally good and, yet, simple, fun, and affordable. They would take buy term papers support