White Lies are pretty Gloomy, and there debut album highlights the band’s bleak outlook on life. The first song on the debut album “to loose a life.” Is previous single death, Lead singer Harry Mc Veigh clambers into the microphone proclaiming “that the fear has got a hold of me.” But the song is strangely uplifting bar the grim subject matter and is sure to encapsulate many a fan.
Next up is by far one of the better song in the album which is the title track “to loose a life.” The young band again deals with the heady gloomy issues of life and death, but this song has a slick intensity which will surely emulate White Lies into the big leagues this year. For a start they have been hotly tipped by music magazine NME, The Guardian, and every other finger on the pulse music outlet in the U.K & indeed the listening masses seem to be feeling White Lies. To quote my very trendy pal Lee in a recent conversation about the current music climate in England “Nothing is really doing it for me, nothing is holding my attention that much apart from those White Lies, and it seems like the only album im looking forward to.” Well said Lee, as in many ways this album is the curtain raiser for the new music 09 convention.
But back to the album and third track “A Place to Hide” shows another creative string to the west London three. The fact that they can create a simple guitar pop song with a certain amount of kick, and more worryingly has that same uplifting quality to it vast the doom and gloom which is conjured by Mr Mc Veigh. Expect to be hearing this on your radio come September when the band realise the third single off the album.
Carbon copy “Fifty On Our Foreheads” again has that strangely uplifting tone to the band, and like many a critic who have compared them to a pastiche of Manchurian legends Joy Division I can see some similarities in White Lies. The key amount of drone bass delivered by the eloquently named Jack Lawrence-Brown. But I also see a nod to peers Glasvegas who indeed offer similar gloomy undertones powered by heavy bass-lines and high keyboard playing, that wouldn’t sound out of place at a funeral.
The funeral themed organ runs into the next track “Unfinished Business.” Similar amounts of gloom, doom and general death are thrown out as Mc Veigh claims of a “of a light in the distance,” yet he calmly reassures us that “he will wait for you.” A lovely sentiment perhaps in a song which is so clearly about a love lost. A forlorn Mc Veigh looking back onto what could have been, all with the unsettling spectre of death looming over the piece, spooky stuff.
The rather cryptically titled E.S.T rumbles into my ears and you can clearly hear the influences of My Bloody Valentine and again Joy Division, the churning rolling combination of key board and steady drumming creates a hypnotic consistent rhythm which points to Loveless circa 1991. But again the triumphant vocals of Mc Veigh, gives the track another dimension which again has this by now bone chilling amount of uplifting tones.
Next track, “From the Stars” could be earmarked as a potential single as Mc Veigh opens up the song with the tale of a friend he noticed at a funeral, again with the death. But thanks to some truly grandiose guitar rifts, the introduction of some orchestral strings and of course the delivery from Mc Veigh you get a rather marauding tale of how fantastically huge the universe is and how we are just small and inadequate in the scheme of things. It’s this kind of imagery which is given from the song which will keep you dancing along with White Lies.
We then move onto the weaker songs on the album which is “Farewell to the Fairground” in which a certain bolt of overwhelming positivity is thrust into the song. Something that I found relatively jading whilst listening to the album, I much preferred the gloom & misery piled on in “Death”. Along with the subtle uplifting hint. But this track just offers out and out positivity especially when Mc Veigh claims “there is no place like home” Ala Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, it certainly doesn’t sit well especially those honky tonk style guitar rifts, not appealing in the slightest.
Onto the Penulatamate track of the album and the start imagery of doom and gloom return in “Nothing To Give” as in his lowest and saddest tones Mc Veigh admits that he has quite finally notes “As you said goodbye I almost died.” A very bold statement indeed over the top many would note but I think that this angle sits well with the band, the one of overall seriousness. So don’t expect an cheeky disco anthem to be produced anytime soon.
The band don’t disappoint on final track “The Price Of Love” which is a powerful, staunch piece of story telling from Mc Veigh again around the now almost predictable themes of death, doom, gloom and crucially heartbreak as a tale is told of a husband leaving a wife. All set to rather epic tones conducted in part my the relentless drumming from the rather mysterious and shy fourth member of the band who is never pictured in official band photo’s. The album again ends with tense orchestaral strings which wrap up the album in a frantic and almost timeless manner, putting the curtain down on the first album from the class of 09’s ones to watch.
Overall I must say that I quite enjoyed the album as a listen, yet im also a fan of doom and gloom and so I guess it was always going to sit well with me. But I feel that White Lies for all the creativity and epic songs will find it hard to shake of the monkey off there back in the form of Ian Curtis. For all the excitement and hype behind the band I think that many will note the distinct nod to Joy Division, and merely dismiss the band.
But that said, the ball has already started rolling for White Lies, signed up for the prestigious NME awards tour along with hot new things Florence and the Machine. But more importantly in a recent interview it seems the band have a quality and a desire to improve, and perhaps by boastfully claiming “We’d feel very comfortable playing Wembley Arena.” Shows the confidence that this band posses and who knows off the back of 09 perhaps White Lies could be “the band of 2010” which sounds fansticly grand in a futuristic kind of way.I guess we will just have to wait and see.
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