White Lies, Ritual – Album Review
(Polydor) 2/5
“White lies are quite dark…that’s how we see ourselves,” the Ealing trio said about their name choice in 2009. But White Lies aren’t dark – they’re about telling your mum her new dress looks nice when, in fact, it looks crap.
Like Editors and Interpol before them, they make a good play at gloom rock with lyrics obsessed with love, and love lost, delivered in Harry McVeigh’s stentorian vocals against dramatic walls of sound.
There’s lots of Depeche Mode-inspired industrial post-apocalyptic imagery but Ritual, their second album, lacks that dark-night-of-the-soul quality which packs true emotional punch. It’s more dark-lite, if you get my drift.
Alison Grinter
