When White Lies arrived on the scene two years ago, they made an strong impression with their deathly debut, To Lose My Life. Now, the UK rockers are ready to return with their sophomore LP, Ritual, on January 18th. However, for this particular effort, the subject manner won’t be nearly as dark.
“It’s a lot more uplifting,” said singer Harry McVeigh to the BBC. “It’s more about love than anything else. We haven’t radically changed direction. They’re just quite uplifting songs. There are a few surprises on the record actually.”
The frontman also mentioned that his favorite song on the upcoming record is “Peace and Quiet”: “It was one of those songs that we made quite near the end of the record. It’s just quite musical,” he said. “And you can really hear how much we’ve progressed from our first album with that song. It’s quite complex.”
When it comes to complex arrangements, having Alan Moulder (Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumkins) in your corner definitely helps. The producer will add his unique brand of alternative music to the group’s haunting tunes.
The first single from the album, “Bigger Than Us”, will ring in the new year a little late on January 3rd. Some live performances of the new songs, including the lead single, have already found themselves online. If you want to hear more though, they’ll likely perform many new tracks on their forthcoming world tour, set to begin November 16th in Edinburgh. No North American dates included yet, but we’ll let you know when they are.
Ritual Tracklist
01. Is Love?
02. Strangers
03. Streetlights
04. Bigger Than Us
05. Peace & Quiet
06. Holy Ghost
07. Turn the Bells
08. Power & The Glory
09. Bad Love
10. Come Down
White Lies 2010 Tour Dates:
11/16 – Edinburgh, UK @ Picture House
11/22 – London, UK @ York Hall
11/30 – Ljubljana, SI @ Kino Siska
12/01 – Zagreb, HR @ Tvornica Kulture
12/02 – Belgrade, SP @ Studentski Kulturni Centar
12/04 – Skopje, MK @ Taksirat Festival
12/08 – Santiago, CL @ Teatro Italia
12/08 – San Paolo, BR @ Unique Hotel
12/15 – London, UK @ Xfm’s Winterwonderland at Brixton Academy