White Lies – To Lose My Life – Album Review

I like White Lies, they’re a seemingly angst-driven band who, as well as providing perfect guitar-pop melodies, sing about pretty gloomy stuff, with last year’s single ‘Death’ (which is the opener here) proving their outlook on life was pretty bleak and this album is more of the same. The album cover also has pretty gloomy connotations. If I’m honest I don’t buy in to the whole emulation of depressing bands like Joy Division, but at the end of the day, White Lies make good music. They’ve certainly made a good album here.

It’s IS simple guitar pop, but it has an edge to it, that creates distinction, as well the vocals which are really good in my opinion, they are actually quite commanding. Throughout, the band keep close to what they know works, most songs follow the same sort of pattern and although that’s something I don’t normally like, I can’t discredit White Lies for it here, the album is consistently good because of this. They may not be pushing the boundaries of music but once in a while a great rock-pop band can carve themselves such a distinctive sound that it makes fantastic their work. White Lies have successfully in my opinion done that, they sound fantastic and though probably not unique, have released the first great album of this year. At time of writing, it’s out in 8 days.

Here’s a couple of highlights;
White Lies – A Place to Hide
White Lies – E.S.T.