|
Sunday, 23 January 2011 |
When White Lies first stepped into the glare of media hype they found themselves simultaneously lauded and maligned. The band appeared in almost every "one to watch in 2009" poll, but almost as much attention focused on their previous incarnation as lightweight indie-poppers, Fear Of Flying.
Were the new image, tortured (and tortuous) lyrics and humourless sixth form angst a cynical marketing ploy? Or, to paraphrase another doom-laden pop star, were White Lies "4 real"?
‘Ritual' arrives two years and a million sales later, proving that their hefty fanbase certainly believed in them. Yet the album raises the same doubts again: for all the moody atmospherics producer Alan Moulder dresses the rudimentary musicianship in, for all the blustering pomp of Harry McVeigh's vocal delivery, the songs rarely convince. It would be tempting to put this failure down to the band's youth - what can such whippersnappers truly know about the hardships of life? - until you remember that they are now the same age as Nick Drake and PJ Harvey were when they first wailed their searing, eloquent confessionals into the world.
The real problem lies in how obvious the band's reference points are, and the gap between their vaulting ambitions and their actual ability to deliver on them. Musically, the synth-heavy swirl of ‘Streetlights' is one of the album's more alluring moments, a game stab at replicating the morose magnificence of ‘Faith'-era Cure, but the dreary central melody and lightweight, embarrassing lyrics ("I'm bored and I'm afraid / I'm falling like rain for you") simply buckle under the weighty production. Similarly, the heavy-handed, flat-footed ‘Holy Ghost' is a transparent attempt to resurrect Ian Curtis, but it's hard to believe he would bother crossing the road for it, let alone cross from the other side.
There are moments where the mini-pops Joy Division approach hits paydirt, notably on the relentless, single-minded surge of the single, ‘Bigger Than Us'. But mostly the trio are at their best when they wriggle free from the colossal shadows they're hiding under. The squirming, grinding electronica of ‘Bad Love' at least plunders from less obvious sources (Curve, Depeche Mode), while ‘Is Love' is an impressively stormy opener, and provides one of the album's few true surprises, when it suddenly shifts pace from groaning industrial slog to breathless electro skip.
They'll need to pull out a lot more surprises like that on their third album if they have any ambition to carve out their own identity. There are enough glimmers of invention on ‘Ritual' to make this seem possible, but not nearly enough to make it seem probable. |
|
|
latest 20 news stories |
-
Girls Aloud plan 10th anniversary reunion to mark the band's wishes.
The girl group was formed in 2002 when each of the singers won their place by competing in TV talent contest Popstars The Rivals....
-
Christina Aguilera's inspirational ballad Beautiful has been named the most empowering pop song of the last decade for the gay community. Aguilera's 2003 hit saw off competition from gay icon Lady Gaga to take a third of the votes in a poll by charity Stonewall to find pop's most ...
-
Notoriously private pop icon Prince stunned late night talk show host George Lopez on Thursday when he phoned in and offered himself up as a guest. The singer is preparing to perform a run of 21 nights in Los Angeles next week and he reached out to comedian Lopez to ask if he and his group, ...
-
Lady Gaga proved she is prepared to suffer for her art when she danced until her feet bled on the set of one of her music videos. The pop star wore a pair of sky-high Christian Louboutin shoes to film her LoveGame promo and considered stopping the shoot when she realised her strenuous routine...
-
Ageing rocker Bob Seger is contemplating retiring from the stage after his current US tour because it's becoming more and more of a "challenge" to perform well in concert....
-
Kelly Clarkson, Jason Aldean and Rihanna will perform on next week's American Idol results show. The first-ever American Idol winner will take to the stage with Aldean to perform their track 'Don't You Wanna Stay', while it has not been confirmed what Rihanna will sing....
-
The scent of success? Fergie launches second fragrance with Avon after breaking sales records with perfume debut.Her debut fragrance broke sales records for Avon last year. So it is little surprise that the beauty giant has joined forces with the singer for a follow-up perfume launch....
-
The 26-year-old singer - who married the British comedian in India in October last year - has an "amazing relationship" with her husband and likes to take time out from her busy schedule to focus on him.
...
-
Now on the mend and fully recovered from his brush with cancer, Adam “MCA” Yauch and the rest of Beastie Boys are in the works to release their brand new album, Hot Sauce Committee – Part Two. Scheduled for a release date of May 3rd, the pioneering hip-hop trio also set their sight...
-
Lindsay Lohan is on the verge of a major big-screen comeback amid rumours she is in negotiations to join John Travolta in a movie about the infamous Gotti family. ...
-
The Dave Matthews Band will headline a three-day, multi-act, multi-stage festival July 8-10 on Chicago's South Side lakefront, promoters announced Thursday....
-
Adults, you can always leave when what you consider to be unpleasant talk begins. Most language use, even the so-called filthiest, is protected under the freedom of speech amendment. In the '50s and early '60s, comedian Lenny Bruce tested the grit of the freedom of speech amendment by re...
-
Michael Jackson was on the brink of financial ruin when he agreed to do his "This is It" concert tour, and his fear of failure spurred by severe insomnia drove him to take desperate measures that killed him, a lawyer for his doctor said Wednesday.
...
-
Television presenter Nick Cannon has described his wife Mariah Carey's nude covershoot as "beautiful". Speaking on MTV News, the 'America's Got Talent' host said that he loved the photographs of Carey, who is pregnant with twins, taken for Life & Style magazine....
-
U.S. singer Bob Dylan performs on stage at the Workers' Gymnasium in Beijing, capital of China, April 6, 2011. The American music icon kicked off his first-ever China concert in Beijing Wednesday night.
...
-
The event takes place in an old Fortress July 7 - 10. ...
-
Michael Jackson's mother has launched a legal battle with the King of Pop's concert promoters, insisting they ignored life-threatening activities that were going on behind closed doors at the star's rented mansion - and resulted in his death....
-
Fans have been warned not to expect any more albums from Iggy Pop and The Stooges - the band now sees full-length recordings as "irrelevant", according to guitarist James Williamson....
-
Lily Allen has been in agony after an operation to remove all four of her wisdom teeth left her with a 16-hour nosebleed....
-
Lily Allen has turned her attentions from performing to picking new talent - she has launched her own record label and found her first new act, according to reports....
|
|
The UK Top 10 Radio Airplay |
|
|
|
Who's Online |
|
We have 23 guests online |
|
|
Home 
