CD CHOICE: WHITE LIES To Lose My Life Polydor ****Already one of the bands being deemed "most likely to" this year, there are two sure things about this London nouveau goth three-piece: their music lives up to the hype; and they're going to get a critical kicking from people who will lazily put them in brackets alongside the names Joy Division, Interpol and Editors.
The comparisons do stand up to an extent: White Lies are doom/gloom indie kids who seem a bit preoccupied with the dark side. But dig a little deeper and you'll find a bit more going on in the sound here.
The first two singles, Unfinished Businessand To Lose My Life(both included here) showed that they could also display the odd Morrissey or OMD flourish to broaden out their sound.
Both songs showcase the robust vocal cords of singer Harry McVeigh - and the icy and somewhat monotone vocal does dominate proceedings here. But McVeigh can shift through the gears when he needs to, most notably on one of the standout track here, From The Stars, when he really belts it out.
The influences recede as the album progresses - White Lies have a big, ambitious sound that will certainly fill out the enormodomes and you can just hear songs such as Nothing To Give, with its big anthemic message, being bellowed back to them by hordes of fans.
At times they sound like they were dreamed up at a marketing meeting by people who to unleash the darker, evil twin of The Killers on the pop world, but once you get over the somewhat eerie familiarity of some of these songs and the fact that they seem to be fast-tracking their way to stadium status, you will hear a stolid, sonorous sound that is never too ashamed to recognise the importance of a central pop music conceit.
This is eye-liner goth music for the masses then - and that's no bad thing.
[ www.whitelies.comOpens in new window ]
Download tracks: Unfinished Business, Nothing To Give
