Customer Reviews

To Lose My Life . . .

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What an incredible album...I had the import of this since January and haven't stopped listening to it. Very dark and mysterious at times, like a window into a twisted soul. It hints at goth and electronica but never deviates from true rock music. Nothing sounds corny or contrived. This really is THE rock album of 2009.

Like many newer bands today, there's perceived musical influences amongst stated ones. White Lies are young, and say they don't sound like anyone. While taking these Brits at their word may work for some, points of reference are a must for description. Listening 'To Lose My Life' brought many sounds and quips from musical memory, but flattery may not be the best compliment here. A Flock of Seagulls and Icicle Works guitar riffs; The Cars whimsical keyboards; Echo & Bunnymen's strings; amongst A-Ha's and Tears For Fears like vocals makes first listen to almost schizophrenic. Rounding off with similar gigs like The Editors and Franz Ferdinand tops off schizo sound with pleasant confusion. Consecutive listenings however, they start growing on you - with increasing talent and sound all their own. Highly recommended for curious musical connoisseurs.

What can I say? This is like a modern version of some of my fave 80's bands--INXS, Depeche Mode, Psychedelic Furs. I love every track on this cd and have listened to it over and over. I'm amazed that something so complete came out of a debut cd. Fabulous job guys!

White Lies are a Rock trio and their debut CD "To lose my life" has topped the charts in their native UK. Their brand of gloomy danceable Rock with shimmery synths and trilling guitars recalls acts like Editors, Interpol, or even Franz Ferdinand in places. Catchy songs with dark subject matter that get even catchier each time you listen.

Opening cut "Death" and the harrowing sounding "To lose my life" ("Let's grow old together, and die at the same time") and "A place to hide" (nice drumrolls) fall into the Dance/Rock bracket. Slowing things down is "Fifty on our foreheads" (with horns adding to the ambience).

"Unfinished business" with it's hymnal organ intro reminds one of Coldplay's "Fix you" but the lads soon put paid to any such notion. It's a pulsing mid tempo number with chiming guitars which picks up to a galloping pace and lyrics about zombie lovers, a definite standout! "E.S.T" is a shimmery sounding midtempo Rocker with a droning riff (and gloomy lyrics about a Manic depressive), while "From the stars" starts off as a nice ballad (lyrics about a millionaire's breakdown belying such sweetness) before galloping away.

"Farewell to the fairground" is a beautiful song with throbbing synths in the verses and cutting guitars in the chorus against dancey beats, and lyrics about a haunted fair. This is my favourite, along with "Nothing to give" which is a melodramatic piano/string ballad (with percussion and swirling electronic flourishes coming in the final minute), and closing is "The price of love" (interspersed with marching beats, glossy synths and interesting tempo shifts - The Killers would kill for this song, pardon the pun).

Not since The Smiths has doom and gloom sounded like such fun!

This is one of those albums that I can play from beginning to end and not skip a single song. These guys have a great sound that isn't to heavy and isn't too soft. Lyrics are cool and edgy. The whole album keeps a constant theme yet every song is different. Excellent job guys. Please keep it up. Great for driving!!

Wow what a great CD this is! I listen to this one about every day since I bought it! My favourite tracks are "Farewell To The Fairground" and "Death".

Hope to see more of White Lies in the future and I totally can't wait for the new album Ritual which will be released on January 18, 2011.

Another great track is "Bigger Than Us" and is now available to download and will be on the new album as well!

The UK is fertile grounds for a seemingly never-ending supply of the latest "it" rock bands. If it's not, say, the Kooks one year, it's Arctic Monkeys another year, or, say, White Lies this year. The UK trio appeared pretty much out of nowhere in early 2008 with an intruiging EP, "Unfinished Business". The band went to work on its debut album and ahead of that in the Fall released the single "Death". The rest is, as they say, history. The debut album crashed in at No. 1 in the UK album charts.

"White Lies" (10 tracks; 45 min.) starts off with that first single "Death" (1st UK single), which is a nice enough tune. Better still is the next track "To Lose My Life" (2nd UK single). "A Place to Hide" is perhaps the best example of why White Lies are called the 'new' Joy Division. "Unfinished Business" 9from that same EP) closes a nice first half of the album. The second half of the album kicks off with a thunderous "E.S.T.", which is followed by a somber "From the Stairs" (reminding me of latter-days Ultravox). "Farewell TO the Fairground" (3rd UK single) is my favorite track on the album, with stomping bass and drums, just great.

In all, this is a nice debut album, no question. There are a number of stellar highlights on here. But that said, I must admit I have a hard time understanding all the hoopla that this album caused in the UK. White Lies is scheduled to open for Kings On Leon on the pending Fall US tour, and I can't wait to see how these songs and this band resonate in a live setting.

Let's be frank, even in good albums you get two or three good songs. What are the odds that you get in a Debut album all excellent tracks, classics all of them, made by guys in their early 20's and that even being the bleak, utterly 80's thing it is do appeal to teenagers in 2009 and to eighties freaks like me ? Well, it's pretty hard to get something like that. All I can say, this is the best album I have ever bought. Two weeks after I couldn't get my ears and mind out of it it got mysteriously eaten (literally) by my new Hi Fi. It's inside it in fact (I think so). Though I preffer to think that the utter blackness of it oppened a wormhole to another dimension starting at my stereo. I will need to purchase it again. It's no pain for me because I already cannot live without that sound. I saw accidentally the video of To Loose my Life in TV and I started the search immediatelly. Then by the end of the track A Place to Hide I understood I was listening to something trully great. Those bass sounds over total silence by the end of the song are one of the darkest, sweetest things I have ever heard. Its like crossing in front of a oscure factory in the desert where The Jesus and Mary Chain are testing their guitars. The lyrics are very good too. The influences are clear but let's not get lost here. Those guys are brand new and they can overpass all the masters I can think of. Long life to their creativity.

White Lies is the only band that I can tolerate when it comes to the heavy 80's sound they have. I hated the 80's style, but these guys took all the best from that time period and made it work. Kudos!

I still can't get over how good this album is. The emotions in the album run deep, but on many repeated plays I find they are dusted with a twisted humor that is deeply satisfying.