White Lies’ new album, Ritual starts out OK with heavily dramatic tones, especially on their new single Bigger Than Us, but there was a part of me that felt that it tailed off slightly towards the end. However, the more I listen to it, the better it sounds as an album in its entirety, so it’s sort of difficult to review. It’s hard to tell how I’m going to feel about it in ten or twenty listens times, which could be said of any album review, but for Ritual it feels somehow more true.
It’s like the Bleak House of albums, ladling dark dramatic over dark dramatic, however, there’s also something missing that’s hard to put your finger on in the same way that Bleak House doesn’t have the magic of A Tale of Two Cities.
It’s got a lot of critics, and to a large extent there is something in what they say. The Duran Duran/Depeche Mode comments, the synth pop rock ballad references and calls of emptiness of meaning in the lyrics can all be heard from a certain angle when listening to Ritual. But, this is accentuated by the popular misinterpretation of the album title and intended gravitas of White Lies in general. If you’re listening to them critically and trying to see voodoo sacrifices instead of the ritualistic nature of everyday life then you’re probably doing something wrong.
There’s a certain trudge to Ritual that starts with Is Love and flows straight into Strangers with naivety and a sort of blinkered march, but there’s something fun and renewing about the sound that White Lies is built on too. The flat operatic vocals are slightly addictive, especially on lead single Bigger Than Us, and though the album ends on a distinct anticlimax, the title, Come Down, would imply that the sensation is possibly intentional.
White Lies Ritual is one I’m going to sit on the fence about for a while, but right now it’s an album that I want to listen to some more, so it must be doing something right. While it’s not the big follow-up that I was hoping for, it’s definitely not the massive let down that some critics seem to believe. However, if White Lies keep talking about ambition in plummy tones I don’t think it’ll take long for me to develop a disliking of them.
White Lies Ritual album review: 3.4/5
