To Lose My Life

Amazing band, amazing album, the best debut for ages, see em live too. What a band!

If you loved 80s music, especially groups like the ones mentioned in the description of the album, you are in for a real treat!! White lies has definitely captured the essence of groups like, tears for fears, joy division etc and i absolutely love this album, as its so refreshing to hear today, comapared to a lot of the music today!

Havent heard a band this good in ages! ALL songs are good but "Death" "Farewell to the fairground" "A Place to Hide" and "unfinished business" hits like a bullet trough the soul........Welcome back MUSIC, we missed you!

The tracks 'Death' and 'To Lose My Life', 'A Place to Hide' and 'E.S.T.' are the best on the album. Snagging hooks that you can't get out of your head and even a pulsing groove on 'Death' make it an odd morbid party album.
There are some bland songs though, and the lyrics get ridiculously theatrical at times, but I suppose that's the point.

I hadn't heard of this band until very recently and listening to the album I can't understand why it is and they are fantastic.
An absolute musty have in your CD collection.

I seen these guys at T in the Park not knowing what to expect and they were brilliant bought the album as soon as i got home. My favourite album of 2009!!

I do actually have a serious point to this review (though my terrible attempt at a pun might have put you off), and that is that I find people in general are very difficult to please.
The same band that can be branded an exemplary indie-rock sound, can also be scolded for its lack of originality. Alas, not every band that comes along can be ground breaking. White Lies, whilst they may smack strongly of the likes of Joy Division, Interpol, Editors and so on, nevertheless have put their own unique spin on this branch of darker post-punk scene music.
I'd say the closest comparrison I've heard is that they sound similar to the early Editors albums; both with strong barritone led vocals, earworm guitar riffs, angsty laden melacholic lyrics. The comparrison is a good one, and entirely complementary. I also love the heavy base-led melody to most of the songs, makes the album very satisfying to play at high volume with a good set of speakers built to cope with a pounding bass guitar!
The album itself, I must say, pleasantly suprised me. I had heard the singles, and loved them. Bought the album on a whim, but I confess with little hope. I figured they'd fall into the pit fall like so many over-hyped indie rock bands, great singles but not enough to say to fill an album! However this is not the case, these boys have plenty to say, often in a suprisingly dark way! And the album is not lacking in content; along with the singles, my favourite tracks are "Place To Hide", "EST" with it's fabulous 80s nostalgia, and "Fifty on our Foreheads". But by far the strongest songs of the album have already been released as singles, and make for spectacularly catchy, sing-along-at-the-top-of-your-voice listening!

I personally give the album 4/5, simply based on the number of songs I can listen to without skipping, and despite the good number of high points, some songs (in particular my least favourite "Nothing to Give") seem to lose their way a bit and lose momentum. Nevertheless, an ear-catching debut, and certaintly worth a listen if you want to explore the darker side of indie a bit more!

Saw them last night at the Coldplay concert, brilliant, so logged on to Play today to buy the album and have a better listen.

This album is NONE of the following: Classic, Excellent, Average, Poor.

It sit's somewhere in the middle of those four categories so the law of averages insists that I can only give it a three star rating. It won't be appearing on any top 100 lists any time soon; White Lies are doing nothing new here, certain songs are quite repetitive and McVeigh's voice can grate after a few listens.

That said, however, there's not one BAD track to be found on this record. There are the obvious highlights; all the singles (which explains the hype) are top-drawer indie tunes. Elsewhere; The Price Of Love and E.S.T are both excellent. The other tunes are ok but remind me of lettuce on a salad sandwich; not particularly important to the overall product but decent filler all the same.

It is definitely worth buying. Just don't expect to bowled over...

This album is one of the best debuts i have bought so far this year! All songs are well written, powerful and have a hidden meaning. My stand out tracks are Death, To Lose My Life, From the Stars and The Price of Love. Farewell to the Fairground seems like another band's song, i dont kno why :L definately recommended!