White Lies – To Lose My Life (2009)

Rising from the ashes of happy-go-lucky indie rock outfit Fear of Flying, White Lies are this year’s token Joy Division tribute band. Following in the footsteps of Interpol and Editors, they’ve been hailed as “the heirs to Ian Curtis’ gloom-pop throne” by the Guardian. Or something like that. Now, I’ve been spending quite a bit of time with this album and I’m finding all these Joy Division comparisons rather puzzling, because honestly White Lies sound absolutely nothing like them. There was more to Joy Division than Ian Curtis’ bleak lyrics and dark Jim Morrison-esque singing. There was a raw, punk rock type of energy behind the music that elevated Curtis’ unorthodox moodiness on a whole other level. White Lies’ sound is on a completely opposite spectrum. To Lose My Life’s production is crisp-clean, the hooks and choruses are fucking huge and the massive power chords are more akin to arena-rock than anything else. There’s nothing punk rock, or even post-punk, about this lot. And I couldn’t care less because this album is rock-solid.

Yep, their lyrics might reference death, murder, suicide and all sorts of depressing shit, but this is a band that wants to reach THE MASSES, no questions about it. Also, I feel like pointing out that the frontman’s over-the-top Ian McCulloch/Anthony Hegarty singing hybrid makes it a bit hard to take the lyrical content too seriously, so fuck all of that. Let’s just embrace the bombast of it all, because there songs are BOMBASTIC. The album is book-ended by two ridiculously-epic songs that show exactly how White Lies are more suited for stadiums than most, if not all of the current post-punk revival bands they’re being compared to. Opener “Death” grabs you instantly with its grand, cinematic atmosphere. The song builds up slowly around an infectious bassline, new wavey synths and sparse reverbed chords. The climax hits you like a ton of bricks as stadium-sized guitars drop in and crush everything in sight for an epic finale. Meanwhile, closer “The Price of Love” takes the band’s penchant for the grandiose to a whole other level with a mix of Spaghetti-western guitar chords and escalating strings all leading to a massive world-conquering chorus. These songs are huge, like U2-huge.

In between these two monsters are 8 songs that could all be released as singles. That is how pop-friendly these guys are. Recent bands like Interpol can be heard as reference points once in a while, but the resemblance is subdued rather quickly by the album’s sheer amount of familiar pop rock hooks. The title track’s fuzzy, menacing bass sets-up a rather tense mood that eventually turns into fist-pumping fun with a big cheeseball chorus (“Let’s grow old together! And die at the same time!”) meaty power chords and another guest appearance from the string section during the bridge. “Unfinished Business” brings back the opening track’s build-up feel with goth-like organ and scratchy guitar slowly leading to an explosive pop-rock finale. Elsewhere, “Nothing to Give” channels Ocean Rain-era Echo and the Bunnymen by putting the string-section to the forefront and the result is rather solid.

As you’ve probably gathered by now, there’s nothing terribly new or innovative about White Lies, the singing and lyrics are corny and overly dramatic, and yes they do take cues from a lot of 80’s British bands (though not the ones you’re thinking of), but it’s hard to deny the hookiness and sheer immediacy of this 10-track debut. These guys are ready for the big venues and unlike a lot of their peers, they’ve got the songs to back up their U2-sized ambitions. Now let’s just hope they didn’t blow their wad on this one album.

7.5/10