| CD REVIEW White Lies |
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Band : White Lies What am I doin', reviewing a major label album out for more than half a year? Eh...beggars can't be choosers, so here we go! This English Indie Rock band from West-London suburb Ealing was founded in October 2007, after the core of the band (consisting of lead singer/ guitarist Harry McVeigh, bassist/ backing singer Charles Cave, and drummer Jack Lawrence-Brown) found their newly written (darker) material to be too unsuitable for their original band Fear Of Flying. Postponing their debut gig under the new name (which they chose because “...white lies are quite dark...”) for 5 months to build up media hype, the band scored a recording contract with Fiction Records (best known for having been The Cure's label for some 20 years, and currently the home of the likes of The Maccabees, Snow Patrol, Ian Brown, Elbow, Kate Nash, Detroit Social Club, and others). Following 3 singles which got great media attention and major radio airplay, the band released its debut full-length (including all 3 singles) To Lose My Life (each song having death as its central theme) on January 1st, 2009, which brought the band comparisons to the likes of Joy Division, Interpol, The Killers, Echo And The Bunnymen, and Editors (the band itself stated in a BBC interview that their major influence was actually Talking Heads). Meanwhile, the band had spent the Summer of 2008 playing several big UK and overseas festivals, did its first headlining tour in the UK during September, and a short tour (6 dates including an appearance at the important CMJ Music Festival in New York) in the US, and returned to the UK circuit playing 15 gigs during November and December, in support of Glasvegas. Following the album's release the band got featured in numerous polls as “ones to watch” for the coming year. Not surprising, as the band was the first British act in 2009 to achieve a number one album, and the first to debut at that position (beating such heavy competition as Lady Gaga and Kings Of Leon). Following some appearances on television, the band (on stage completed by additional musicians Tommy Bowen and Rob Lee) supported Snow Patrol on their UK and Ireland tour, before getting out on their headline world tour, playing many sold-out shows in Europe, Japan, and the US (where they co-headlined with Friendly Fires). The guys then again did some of the major Summer festivals, both in the UK (Glastonbury, Isle Of Wright, Oxegen, Radio 1's Big Weekend, Reading and Leeds, T In The Park) and abroad (including Benicàssim, Coachella, Lollapalooza, Roskilde, and even our own Rock Werchter). In September the band supported Kings Of Leon on their US tour and was the well-received first support band to Coldplay's UK tour...the band also released the track “Taxidermy” (previously only on the since deleted vinyl release of To Lose My Life) as a digital download through iTunes for the first time. WL continued to do a headline tour of Europe during October and November, putting in some of their biggest UK shows to date. Some of the early shows got canceled due to McVeigh falling ill, but he recovered swiftly and the rest of the tour was finished as normal, the canceled dates removed to February 2010. Otherwize, 2010 was a slow live year for WL, who only played two headline shows on February 13 and 14 (same venue) and only put in several support shows for Muse between June and September, as well as performed at the 2010 V Festival in the UK. The band announced having finished work on their sophomore album in November, releasing first single Bigger Than Us was on the 15th of that same month. In Holland and Belgium, that single did fairly well, reaching #45 in the Dutch Single Top 100 and #36 in Belgium's singles charts. The album also got into the charts, with #3 and #4 as highest notations in Holland and Belgium respectively (however, in Holland it only stayed in the charts for 11 weeks, with 23 weeks in Belgium). In an interview with ITN Music McVeigh, when asked about the musical comparisons, was found saying “We weren't alive during that period of music...we've never really been into Joy Division, especially not Editors...or even Interpol really,” adding, “I don't think our music sounds a whole lot like those comparisons. I think we're a lot more euphoric and uplifting”. Well, the truth, my dearies...is somewhere in the shadow reign. Because the comparisons are not that far off, especially not, indeed, when you allow for WL to be more uplifting! I mean, can anyone listening to the songs posted at (www.) myspace.com/whitelies deny the fact that McVeigh indeed sounds somewhat similar to Ian Curtis (Joy Division's first singer)? Okay, so why are we getting this album for review now? Has the band been around recently, and are we doin' this review far too late due to the enormous work-load? Or are they about to play in our country in times to come? Not so according to the dates I've seen so far. Meanwhile, it's hard to deny that this band has superior qualities in the Dark Pop-Rock/ Indie genre, with occasionally sharp guitar play and frequent freaky keyboard/ synth sounds! Therefore, a well-deserved rating of... 88/100 Tony. |