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Broadening their musical palette with electronic touches and nods to Peter Hook’s bass style, Ritual’s references orbit very firmly around a lot of music made pre-1985 – lead singer Harry McVeigh has moved on from the early Ian Curtis intoning, and now has a touch of the Julian Cope about his voice – and is in thrall to the mid-00 new-wavery that the likes of Editors have made their own. It also encourages parallels with early U2, back when Bono considered Echo & The Bunnymen their main threat and before the pomposity that followed their big breakthrough. Produced by Alan Moulder, who has form with the likes of Depeche Mode, Ride, Smashing Pumpkins and My Bloody Valentine, it’s a step on from the sixth-form Joy Division-isms of their debut.
Highlights include opener Is Love, setting the stall out for the whole album by introducing interesting electronic elements. Strangers has a big chorus that could induce a wave of nu-goth arm-waving while soundtracking goals of the week montages, likewise first single Bigger Than Us. The Power & the Glory toys with MBV-style strafing feedback over Human League-lite touches, which is likely to invigorate the tents during the festival season, and closer Come Down channels The Killers doing Kilimanjaro (quite a good thing, actually).
Despite being disabled with rotten cover art, Ritual is a sturdy affair, and one that should continue White Lies’ steady ascent towards something serious and important. Their big issues sound perfect for a manky January, but a bit of light relief wouldn’t go amiss among the semi-overblown soundtrack to self-harming and painting-your-bedroom-black that is too often implied. But hey, it’s worked well for others – and you never know, they (and we) may wake up in a few years and find that they’ve become colossal in the States.
--Ian Wade
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as good as White Lies' first album,
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This review is from: Ritual (Audio CD)
An OK album, but I was expecting much more after 'To Lose My Life', which was one of the best CDs I'd bought for a long chalk.'Ritual' is a bit samey, without the variety of 'To Lose My life'. It's ok to settle on a style, but I think the boys have gone too far with this. But there are some good tracks, which the more I hear the more I like. 'In love' is good, not so sure about 'bigger than us', and 'turn the bells' is the one that sticks in my head out of all of them. 'Power & glory' would be brilliant if it wasn't for that annoying little squeak through the first half - what's all that about, totally ruins it. I usually listen to music in the car, but this is one that does deserve an at-home listen, as some of the musical details get lost in the road noise. Hoping the next album will rediscover some of the freshness. Please guys.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not a patch on their debut effort,
This review is from: Ritual (Audio CD)
I have always liked White Lies so I was intrigued by their second album. While this album isn't bad it doesn't hook like To Lose a Life. The songs aren't as catchy and are more drawn out, less indie and more electro. Their sound has been altered which of course is inevitable when you are trying to bring out new material devoid of the characteristics of the previous record. I interviewed Charles Cave a few years back just after the release of their first album where they were playing worldwide due to the success of the first record so I am holding out hope that over time they will continue to grow and excite. Any White Lies fan should buy this because despite it's slight inferiority to the first effort it still boasts a few stellar tracks including the single Bigger than Us, Peace and Quiet and The Power and the Glory.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
synth pop,
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This review is from: Ritual (Audio CD)
the first album had a good balence of synth and guitar and it was perfect but this album is mostly synth and most of the time it hurts my ears.is love 2/5 has potential but too much synth and the post-chorus sounds like a dj is scratching strangers 5/5 awesome song but bad music video bigger than us 5/5 epic peace & quiet 4.5/5 nice intro but goes on for too long streetlights 1.5/5 love love will tear us apart again. uncanny. bad chorus too holy ghost 1.5/5 good bass lick. but thats all turn the bells 0/5 crap power & the glory 4.5/5 awesome song but some parts could easily be done on guitar bad love 5/5 guitar yay!!!!! :D come down 1 million/5 highlight of the album please stop making music on computers and use instruments your a rock band for christ sake!!!! still some good songs but not enough to compel me.
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