White Lies : To Lose My Life
White Lies, not White Lies —the completely unknown German group from the mid ’90s—nor Fear of Flying—the group they used to be before announcing on their MySpace page that `Fear of Flying is DEAD, White Lies is alive’ in October 2007 (not really that long ago) are here to save indie rock. This is what radio tags and TV slots will have you believe. And when you hear the first 30 seconds of “Death,” the opening track from their debut album To Lose My Life, you can hear yourself wake up and actually think `Oh shit! Corporate manipulation and advertising could actually be right.’ Scrreeeccchhh. Stop. Not so fast. Everyone’s got one good tune right!
A quick synopsis on White Lies, they’re from West London, they wear black, there are three of them, and they don’t smile in their promo shots.
“Death” is an incredible tune, with a powerfully driven baseline, backed by thunderous drumming, a guitar riff that comes in at just the right time, a great vocal from frontman Harry Mc Veigh and dark lyrical content which will sit very well with a confused teenager. It seems to scream not only that indie rock is back, but Rock in every sense is back, and that’s all fine…until we hear the rest of the record, which is basically the same effort stretched over nine more far less engaging songs that get progressively less uplifting and interesting as the 45 minutes or so roll by.
It’s hard to imagine that people will be fooled by this record, fooled by its ambition and volume, and fooled into thinking that the rest of the songs are actually as good as “Death” merely because they sound like “Death.” The title track is already an FM radio favourite and is simply indie rock by numbers, not to mention lyrically embarrassing—the line “let’s grow old together, and die at the same tiiiiimmme” says it all. “Farwell to the Fairground” sounds like it would impress live, but overall this record feels too polished, too targeted, and simply too one-dimensional. It’s not even indie-rock by numbers so much as indie rock by the lowest common denominator.
Similar Albums:
Friendly Fires – Friendly Fires
Editors – An End Has a Start
The Airborne Toxic Event – The Airborne Toxic Event