White Lies couldn’t have nailed the sound of their second album more aptly with the title of their comeback single. ‘Bigger Than Us’? Well, yeah – saying that the bombastic, gargantuan sound of ‘Ritual’ dwarfs its three creators, all in their early twenties, is a little like putting Peter Crouch next to the Empire State and conceding that it’s just a little taller than him. Following on from the grandiose template laid down by their 2008 debut, here frontman Harry McVeigh, bassist/lyricist Charles Cave and Jack Brown demonstrate an arena-sized leap forward; the dynamic song craft and intricate, complex collage of sounds that run throughout ‘Ritual’ makes ‘To Lose My Life’ sound about as skyscraping as your nan’s bungalow. Aided and abetted by producer Alan Moulder – no shrinking violet when it comes to putting the phwoar into euphoria – it’s a record of almost overwhelmingly epic proportions. Crucially, though, there’s heart at the centre of ‘Ritual”s histrionics. Whereas lyrically, their debut dealt with the fear of life’s one inevitably – y’know, snuffing it – here Cave explores the fear of, umm, everything else. Indeed, White Lies deal in Life’s Big Issues. It sets out its ambitious stall from the off; opener ‘Is Love’ marches into life via McVeigh’s soulful croon and creaking, cathedral organs before exploding into a kaleidoscopic blast of ‘Zooropa’-era U2, ‘Strangers’ surges on a throbbing, urgent bassline before gliding into a chugging, Killers-sized chorus and the aforementioned ‘Bigger Than Us’ bulges with an effortless, horizon-stretching bravado. ‘Peace & Quiet’, meanwhile, sees shimmering synths and a lo-fi electro groove swirl around hypnotic harmonies and the fuzzy, distorted drive of ‘Holy Ghost’, a highlight, makes use of Moulder’s industrial past, its fevered, bilious chorus resembling Depeche Mode at their most devilish. After that adrenaline-spiked opening half, ‘Ritual”s second section shows there’s more to the trio’ than stadium-sized choruses; ‘Turn The Bells’ again makes use of the producer’s industrial expertise as a dense, funereal grind gives way to a stunningly downbeat chorus, whilst the latter is less a song and more a series of monumentally sculpted choruses, first cast over glacial, soundscape synths, then glowing, robotic beats, then, finally and thrillingly, a futuristic gospel march. ‘Bad Love’, the record’s sole misstep, plods next to the athletic artistry of what surrounds it, but the chiming, electro claustrophobia of finale ‘Come Down’ makes up for it, the album coming to a close in a haze of slo-mo, Blade Runner-ish phasers. Astoundingly assured for a second album, ‘Ritual’ is a stunning, mesmerising listen – success, it seems, is one habit White Lies just can’t seem to shake.

Niall Doherty

DOWNLOAD ‘TURN THE BELLS ‘, ‘BIGGER THAN US ‘, ‘HOLY GHOST ‘