White Lies: 'To Lose My Life'

The world is rife with terrorism and religious wars, we're going to have to work until we're 85 to pay off our mortgages, and Woolies has shut down so there's nowhere to get decent-priced pick 'n' mix anymore [Wilkinsons? - Ed]. Periods of economic downturn have traditionally proved fruitful for new music, but who's here to soundtrack our gloom in 2009? While the natural instinct might be to stick on the Girls Aloud 'Best Of' and hope it all blows over, many are tipping West London's White Lies to provide the musical accompaniment to our ever-increasing mountain of woes.

Previously working under the name Fear Of Flying and making perfectly pleasant but run-of-the-mill indie-dance, the trio changed tact and name in 2007 after writing a swathe of blacker material. White Lies describe their songs as "dark horoscopes", a fairly apt description of these mortality-obsessed post-punk hymns. Opener 'Death' kicks off optimistically enough with rumbling New Order-esque bass and frontman Harry McVeigh recalling,"I remember the feeling when we went up, watching the world so small below". However, it's not long before the group's fascination with the grim reaper rears its head, with McVeigh talking about his "grave" and asking, "When I hit the ground, will the earth beneath my body shake?"

Their combination of morbid fantasies, baritone vocals and gothic guitar work has seen the band compared with the likes of Echo And The Bunnymen, The Cure and Joy Division - sometimes unfavourably. Much like Editors and Interpol before them, hard-nosed cynics have accused White Lies of trading in Ian Curtis-lite. Tracks such as 'A Place To Hide', which finds McVeigh hollering clichés about "tears in my eye" and "doubt in my mind", and the soaring 'Nothing To Give', which is worryingly close to the pompous melodrama of Midge Ure's Ultravox, only add weight to such arguments.

Thankfully, these misdemeanours are short and rare. Snipes that the band are a label exec's version of Joy Division, or perhaps another Bravery, are plain lazy. Killers producer Max Dingel brings an LA gloss to proceedings, and much like Glasvegas, another Dingel-produced group, White Lies mask their doom-mongering with melody and musical euphoria. When it all fits together on the sinister romance of 'To Lose My Life' and thundering grand finale 'The Price Of Love', they're a thrilling proposition. The deficiencies and darkness of this record don't quite support expectations that White Lies will break the mainstream in 2009, but its occasional brushes with brilliance are enough to justify the hype.