White Lies

White Lies' album Ritual dominated my headphones for a good four months a few years ago. It was huge and emotional and serious and so fucking easy to get stuck in my head and in turn, it got stuck in my stereo for what felt like the entire year of 2011.

I owe White Lies for renewing my love of the big bands. The bands that you didn't just listen to, but the bands you googled to see pictures of, read more about, watch live video clips of shows in far off lands, find out what their favorite foods were and then practice cooking those foods so if you ran into each other randomly you could kidnap them and feed them and they wouldn't try and run away as fast as if you didn't know how to make just the most stunning mushroom risotto.

I hadn't had this sort of fascination with a group of music makers since the early days of Pearl Jam, where I would sit on my bed and listen and thumb through the CD insert and find out which bands each member of the current line up used to be in, what their sound was inspired by, dietary sensitivities, how often they shopped at CostCo, etc.. White Lies were so sonically all encompassing I didn't need other music.

If you ever find yourself on a one band binge, like my recent Father John Misty ordeal, you'll notice life taking on an almost predictable flavor in relation to song lyrics or specific parts of songs that nature and/or the sounds of the city tend to mimic. I can't completely explain it without potentially boring you out of reading any further, and believe me I want you to at least read far enough to consider peeping Big TV from White Lies, but White Lies is a band that I have been obsessed with in the past, and this new album might lend others to join me in dedicating a large amount of non-predetermined time obsessing over them.

Big TV contains the trademark traits of White Lies which include, but are not limited to, big memorable choruses, tasteful bee-do-dee-do-bee-do-dee-do synths and synthetic strings, power chord hungry song progressions, and those haunting ass motherfucking vocals from the stalkable Harry McVeigh. Harry's vocals are so fucking deep and so damn close to being a caricature of itself through the over the top concentrated intensity of his pronunciationz, but I'll be a fucking screaming White Lies fanboy, they're perfect.

I'm not even speaking in generalities, Big TV contains some White Lies songs that will be dragged into my Balls Ass White Lies playlist that contains nearly all of the Ritual album.

• Opening and title track Big TV is huge. You can imagine this melting 50,000 faces in an arena setting, but what's the most impressive about this song is that the rhythm guitar player ROCK STRUMS and stands there looking sexy while the lead guitar's riff melody completely makes the song.
• There Goes Our Love Again was remixed by Goose a month or so ago and I found it to be better than the original on its own, but shitFuck this song is another White Lies classic, if I do say bro myself. Bro. I just said bro, bro. It's a White Lies classic. It's goat cheese (gorgeous), especially how the synths in the background bubble and boil behind the shiny plucked out clean guitar.
• First Time Caller is a song where my wife was singing the lyrics during the first listen and the second pass through of the chorus. It's catchy, chill and chillchy.
• Mother Tongue is the song I keep coming back to on this album, as the RAER RAER of the distortion on the guitar before the chorus kicks in, into the awesome chorus, into those drums, and then daintily back into the next verse is just fucking awesome. It's this intensity right next to calm beauty that makes me want to listen to White Lies all the fucking time. You're either gripping your steering wheel and intensely staring straight ahead while trying to rip it out or you're staring out the window completely, yet peacefully distracted.
• Getting Even has that chorus bro. Dat. Chorus. Anthemic and sort of evil, I fucking love this song.
• Be Your Man sounds like an 80s movie soundtrack. If you don't like this song, you're just being fucking grumpy bro.
• Goldmine might be the next single to drop, but in my opinion it's no better or worse than Mother Tongue, it's just got another amazing chorus from a band that seems intent on making an entire album that's all fucking chorus.

Big TV is another fucking balls awesome White Lies album, and if you're considering hopping on the bandwagon of a band you can obsess about, lick the White Lies frog bro.