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White Lies - Ritual (Fiction/Geffen)













Despite the common accusations from many critics of White Lies being little more than a watered down version of Interpol (themselves in turn accused by many of the same critics of being little more than watered down Joy Division), I found their debut album to be likable, largely in spite of itself. Their slick, grandiose approach to dour pop would have been very easy to screw up, but a fortunate knack for melody and a heightened sense of the dramatic kept things from going sour. I always felt like these guys hit the mark that fellow Brits Editors were always trying, but consistently failing, to hit with everything after their first couple of singles. So when it came time for White Lies album number two, I had medium hopes of the band evolving into something exciting. Instead we got a limp and pale Xeroxed copy of the debut with little of the charm and personality. Lead single, "Bigger Than Us" held some promise, what with the soaring chorus, but it still paled in comparison to pretty much everything on the debut. The remainder of the album fares far worse, finding the band relying on their one-trick time and time again without, crucially, the saving grace of interesting melodies or construction. My hopes weren't quite high enough for this to register as a crushing disappointment, but I was hoping for these guys to do something interesting with their second album.