When I received White Lies first studio album, To Lose My Life, I was less then impressed. Their music, for all its worth, had been a redundant extension of The Bravery and or The Killers debut albums from long before that albums arrival. Needless to say not much has changed on the bands second outing delivery wise on vocals. Front man Harry McVeigh is still simply a second fiddle Brandon Flowers or Sam Endicott only this time inching closer and closer to a similar style of say, Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode) or the late great Ian Curtis (Joy Division). Of course having a producer like Alan Moulder (Depeche Mode, The Killers, Interpol) doesn’t help.

Fortunately the bands first track on the album, Is Love, manages to find some sort of niche to separate itself from the vocals, and the bass line running down the middle of the track gives it a bit of an individualistic quirk, enough so to bypass the feeling that we’ve been here before. Strangers, some hybrid Depeche Mode track in-between the days when the band was transitioning between keyboards as their core sound production to full on band formation minus Alan Wilder. The album is beginning to lose me. Skip to Streetlights, a track with a catchy chorus and a more current sounding mix that moves away from that 80’s electronic pop feel. It’s a good place to get back into the album I think. Very dark and gothic even if it never quite pinnacles where it hopes to in its message. Next track, Holy Ghost, seems like someone has let these boys off their leash. Most definitely the stand out track on the album that has conviction, a great chorus, and a sound that is unapologetic or minus the mock vocal delivery almost reaching an epic feel. We were doing so well and then we run into Turn The Bells and we have stumbled right back into that Depeche Mode album from earlier. Seriously, as a Depeche Mode fan, I’ve heard their stuff, still have almost all their albums sitting in some random CD case somewhere. It didn’t work out for Hednoize and it won’t bode well for White Lies. Boys take Holy Ghost and build off of it. Don’t be afraid to deviate from what we all know already has worked in the past. In short, progress. Please.

Is Ritual a terrible album. Sort of. As a kid who grew up with The Cure, Joy Division (and its many off shoots), Depeche Mode, Bauhaus. Listening to this album is the equivalent of listening to a mixed tape from these bands. I’ve heard, I’ve lived it, I’ve moved on. Just because kids these days don’t know any better doesn’t mean bands can simply don new fashion and rehash what’s been done. I mean, obviously they can, but really, when it comes down to it, what’s being accomplished other then a free ride on the coattails of bands that made it work. As always final judgment is yours.