CD Review: Ritual, White Lies

This difficult second album has been made all the more tricky by a debut, To Lose My Life, launched straight in at number one in the charts. You can't top it, but can you equal it?

White Lies have brought out the big guns. The album has been produced by Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails and My Bloody Valentine legend Alan Moulder.

The band have already showcased their stadium sound alongside the likes of Muse and the young upstarts signed to The Cure's label, Fiction days after their first live show, which they cannily delayed to ensure maximum hype. Clever chaps.

Last time the band hit a brick wall they rebranded. Aged 15 they were Fear of Flying but felt they needed a new name for a new sound, which proved a good move.

They do sound a bit miserable though. Lead singer Harry McVeigh is channelling the spirit of Ian Curtis with vocals so deep I'm sure he must use a ladder to climb out of them once each set is over.

Sombre track Streetlights does nothing to lift the mood but wait, have you heard the current single?

Bigger Than This, with its '80s new wave keyboards and epic chorus, lifts the album to a whole new spine-tingling level. I think we might have a hit on our hands.