White Lies - Big TV

I often forget about White Lies, dwelling as they do at the bottom of my list of artists in my library and ipod, so I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the album review section of the paper and found a new album, without having missed one since "Ritual". I then promptly forgot again, until I spotted it scrawled on my noticeboard after its first listen, and returned to it today. Some bands change their sound over time, or from record to record, but there's a distinctive-ness to White Lies that for some reason felt very comfortable to hear again. "Big TV" very much follows in the footsteps of their previous efforts, which, thanks to their relatively individual style, is nothing to be disappointed in. Unless, y'know, you don't like their previous records. But I'm going to pretend everyone does.

Their anthemic, orchestral, post-punk MO from "To Lose My Life..." and "Ritual" is the same, and works well with their 'couple moving to the big city' concept/story arch. The almost eerie vocals, the big choruses, the semi-chanted moments that almost verge on mantras, everything that drew me to White Lies in 2009 is still very present in "Big TV". The only 'almost' that frustrates me about the band is that they're almost popular, when I think they're the kind of band that's awesome as a small-time band but will also be able to translate that to filling big venues.

Concept albums are occasionally tricky and feel forced, unable to work as stand alone tracks, in a manner reminiscent of some musicals, but this is one of the times it really does work. I listened to the whole album maybe one too many times for my siblings' sanity* (this happens every time new albums appear), and then listened to a couple of tracks that had caught my eye on their own a couple of times**, just to test it. It works.

It could be easily seen as another judgement on the times we live in, and the first and last tracks certainly suggest some materialism-bashing, but largely what White Lies are good at is creating little stories in their songs, sometimes with lyrics about objects that make the emotions of the characters seem a little more real to me. Characters, rather than personal emotions, seem to be a part of the band's tool-kit, and makes the ideas far more wide-reaching than the usual tales of heartbreak (not that I'm one to turn down yet another love song).

*the thing about people growing up is that there are increasing numbers of them on the same looong holiday deal as me, although I am about to be too grown up for that *sob*
**brothers, I'm very sorrynotsorry