Ritual, White Lies second album, will always hold a special place in my heart. It got me through some tough times when it was released in January of 2011 and it also pushed me to write for Popblerd because if ever an album deserved to be heard, it was that one. Two plus years later and we’re graced with White Lies’ Big TV, their third album.
Honestly, after hearing it through the first time I was worried. It didn’t have the immediacy that certain songs on Ritual did. But then the songs kept creeping back into my consciousness long after I had finished with the record. Whole songs here, choruses there…I just couldn’t escape it. I came to the realization that while certain songs really grabbed me on Ritual, it was the whole of Big TV that grabbed me this time around.
Big TV is their biggest yet. Just as Ritual was bigger than To Lose My Life, Big TV is bigger than all. The production is more lush, the choruses even more grand, and the songwriting and musicianship has grown tenfold.
Opener “Big TV” is this grandiose synth-laden track that is catapulted to the stratosphere thanks to a screaming guitar line by guitarist/vocalist Harry McVeigh and brings to mind some of Roland Orzabal’s Tears for Fears riffs. “There Goes Our Love Again”, the first official single off Big TV along with “Getting Even” (The “unofficial” first single) continues White Lies tradition of releasing songs that immediately hold onto listeners’ ears and never let go (That is kind of a scary visual, actually). Even the songs that I didn’t initially fall head over heels for (“Mother Tongue”, “First Time Caller”), become more outstanding with each repeated listen.
Adding to the overall “experience” of listening to Big TV in its’ entirety are the interludes “Space I” and “Space II” which lead nicely into the tracks that follow them and demand that listeners pay attention from start to finish. Another instant WL classic is the moody “Change” and the spacey “Goldmine” which closes out Big TV.
Big TV is out now! Get yours here.
Grade: A+