Get it right, it’s McVeigh and not Potter we are talking about here. Ritual as a sophomore album proves that White Lies are more than just a Joy Division tribute band. Ironically enough, McVeigh cited the Talking Heads as an influence, rather than Joy Division. He said, “we weren’t alive during that period of music…” Or so he says. Honestly, one doesn’t need to be alive during any particular period to be influenced by that period’s music, right?
In Ritual, the band has ventured into a slightly more electronic sound, on top of their usual brand of rock. And when i first heard it, these bands came into mind: Depeche Mode and the Smashing Pumpkins (during the Machina era), so what’s the lowest common multiple here? Alan Moulder and Electronic sounds/beats/textures on top of their usual modus operandi.
Coincidently enough, he (Alan Moulder also co-produced Ritual) worked with Yeah Yeah Yeahs on their It’s Blitz! LP as well, when they decided to swap their distortion amps for electronic sounds.
Ritual, took me more than a few listens to fully appreciate the album. Not all the songs are as catchy as To Lose My Life’s – a sign that they don’t have to impress anyone anymore, perhaps? Some tracks do get a little draggy, but the few gems we here at Poptart love, make this album still somewhat worth the time. We recommend listening to Holy Ghost, Strangers and Bigger Than Us (the first single from the album). A decent try, but White Lies should stay loud, euphoric and uplifting.
Good for: Wearing black to.
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Hello! I just posted a new mix on my soundcloud. It’s pretty dancey and pop-re-tart-ish.
Hope you’ll enjoy it!
you’re my silicone love by weelikeme
tracklist:
The XX- VCR (Four Tet Remix)
The Temper Trap – Resurrection (Penguin Prison Remix)
Holy Fuck- Red Lights
Holy Ghost! – I Know, I Hear
Discodeine feat. Jarvis Cocker – Synchronize (Extended)
Penguin Prison – Golden Train (Penguin Prison Club Mix)
Mock And Toof – Suppress Your Feelings (Ray Mang Remix)
Chilly Gonzales and Erol Alkan – Never Stop (Erol Alkan Rework)
Digitalism – Blitz (Villa Remix)
Styrofoam – Carolyn
Two Door Cinema – What You Know (Mustang Remix)
Black Strobe – Me & Madonna (The Twelves Remix)
Scissor Sisters – Any Which Way (Tensnake Remix)
UNKLE – Follow Me Down (Featuring Sleepy Sun) (Tim Goldworthy Remix)
Hurts – Stay (Groove Armada Remix)
Bursting onto the indie-rock scene almost 2 years ago to the day, this 3-piece Welsh band gave us a free download of their 8-track EP/minialbum called A Balloon Called Moaning (see what we said about it HERE). How we have pined for their virgin LP, and with only two singles released in 2010, we thought it’d never come.
Well, that wait has finally come to an end! 12 glorious anthemic, power-chord, dream-pop vocal-driven tracks to RAWK on to (actually 7 new tracks – read on!).
Big Roar kicks-off with “Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie”, an apt starting song for further epic-ness to come. A 128-bpm track with nontoocomplicated lyrics and dreamy Ritzy vocals, both playing support to the wonderful distortion-induced rifts found in the chorus and bridge:
Nothing outside will care enough
Nothing outside of you
The dangers of showing
Any kind of weakness
Just to forget your born,
Nothing outside of you
In fact if I were them, I’d open my gig with this song.
Basically out of the 12 tracks on Big Roar, only 7 new tracks are brand new, 4 are from the A Balloon Called Moaning EP and 1 was a single that was released last year.
We like “A Heavy Abacus” and “The Magnifying Glass” out of those 7 new ones. “Bouy” and “Maruyama” are rightly placed in the middle of the album to give the listeners a little breather, before picking up the pace again with the ever-brilliant “Cradle”. The epilogue is then left to “The Greatest LIght is the Greatest Shade”, also from their first-ever EP to leave us craving for more.
Perfect for: Listening on the way to POPTART : D
Merry Christmas to all ye Poppers! Have a fantastic time during the festive season, and here’re some Poptarty Christmassy tracks we would play if Poptart had a party this weekend. Enjoy!
Any ideas on how to come up with a name for a band you have just formed? Well, these 4 guys from Springfield, Missouri do:
- The name should be long or,
- Include a famous name of a politician and if all else fails,
- Just name it after the title of your brother’s school essay.
Although having formed in 1999, SSLYBY only released their first album, Broom, in 2005. They subsequently signed with Polyvinyl and followed up with Pershing in 2008. In recent years as with most bands, the first album is always a sort of a bang, the second somewhat lukewarm, and the third, if they ever get that far, often has the backing of a well-known producer to up the band’s production values and help perfect the band’s distinct sound (if it has one, that is).
SSLYBY has headed in that said direction it seems – Let It Sway was produced by Death Cab for Cutie member/super producer Chris Walla and continues that tradition of catchy songs. Overall, the album has some great hooks that makes me glad to be walking around on a sunny day or happy to be cleaning the house? (see below) One big BUT here: I was looking for that missing punch from boys – bigger drums, bigger explosions into the choruses, added dynamic changes in some tracks perhaps?
This is no doubt a good album, but what is preventing it from being a great one are the epic/anthem-ic tracks that are missing, imho, of course. Maybe the big sound isn’t part of the band’s DNA; we shall see what they might do on their forth so don’t write them off just yet.
Listen to Sink/let it sway, My Terrible Personality, Back in the saddle and Critical Drain. These jangly, powerpop-driven little numbers alone make Let it Sway worth your time but as most music blogs and critics have pointed out, it is the sequencing of the songs that somehow stunts the momentum of the album. Maybe a little re-arranging on the itunes playlist is all it needs?
Perfect for: Cleaning the house to.
Links—>
Sink/Let it sway (Right-click “Save As”)
