Artist: White Lies
Singles: Unfinished Business, Death, To Lose My Life
"Wow. Just wow," could describe my first thoughts towards this album. It's very dark, quite depressing-sounding, but already I think we have a winner for best album of 2009. OK, I know it's January, but it still could happen! Since I heard Unfinished Business and Death, the first two singles, I couldn't wait for this album. And it's so much better than I expected.
DEATH
A five minute opening song that sounds really dark and builds up to a fantastic ending, with the band singing "Yes, this fear's got a hold of me." Probably will do well live. Great as a second single.
TO LOSE MY LIFE
The title track. Everything on this song is brilliant. The deep vocals and the dark lyrics that are present on every White Lies song I've heard are all there, but this one is far more upbeat, even if the chorus talks about growing old and dying. And the ending, with both chorus and backing vocals sounds... fantastic. (Taken from the single review - yes, I'm lazy)
A PLACE TO HIDE
After two insane starting tracks, this calms the album down a bit. It has a good guitar part that makes it sound epic, just like every other song on this album. However, it is probably my least favourite on this album. That doesn't mean I don't like it. It's great.
FIFTY ON OUR FOREHEADS
An odd song title, but Harry McVeigh's deep vocals really work well with the drums and bass before smashing into an epic chorus, rinse and repeat, then goes into a closing "start burning in the sky..." over and over again, and it doesn't get tiring.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
The band's debut single has been revamped, and it sounds more epic than ever. The deepest vocals at the start as McVeigh sings "Just give me a second, darling, to clear my head..." Despite one of the most morbid and depressing on the album, it still sounds great.
E.S.T.
The song starts great, and has a great guitar part. Again with the depressing death-related lyrics: "If you tell me to jump then I'll die." They've claimed that they are not dark people, but seriously, what are we supposed to think?
FROM THE STARS
A song about millionaire breakdowns. Another odd topic for the trio, but it gets going after a while. Probably not one of their better songs, but nevertheless good.
FAREWELL TO THE FAIRGROUND
My personal favourite, this is possibly the only upbeat song that hasn't got any depressing bits. Scratch that, it's the only song on the album that hasn't got any depressing bits. It deserves to be a single, without a doubt. From its drumming intro to its epic line built for live performances; "Keep on running, keep, keep on running, there's no place like home, there's no place like home..." to the ending, it never lets up as being the best song. In all aspects.
NOTHING TO GIVE
Beautifully brilliant. Or brilliantly beautiful. Or both. Vocal-led for most of it, until the strings play faint sounds in the second verse before the drums finally kick in, but before you know it, it's over. Shame. Oh, and we're back with depressingly dark songs. Or should that be darkly depressi - oh, I'll shut up now.
THE PRICE OF LOVE
The album closes with a song about kidnapping. It builds up gradually and comes to the end where the screams of "so is this the price of love?" over and over again, which makes the album so complete.
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