Think of White Lies as the Menswe@r of the latest UK rock movement; there is nothing particularly wrong with them, but the combination of timing (they don’t have it) and chops (they have enough to get by) saddles To Lose My Life, the band’s debut album, with one heck of an uphill battle. Their earnest, widescreen melodrama will fit snugly next to your Editors and Interpol CDs, and the title track, with its unforgettable lyric “Let’s grow old together, and die at the same time,” is sure to rope in a lovestruck Goth kid or two. It’s all perfectly pleasant, and they even reach for Julian Cope levels of bombast on “Nothing to Give,” but it’s lacking that transcendant moment where the band rises above its influences to deliver something extraordinary. As debuts go, it’s unassuming – which went out of style with the advent of Soundscan – but so was Travis’ first album. Let’s see where they go from here. (Geffen 2009)

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