The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.
Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.
T is for To Lose My Life released by White Lies as a single in January 2009.
White Lies burst onto the scene in 2008, one of those bands who get hyped all over the media on the back of some journalists having caught them at a gig and prior to any music being available to buy. This is normally a recipe for disaster, but for once the music did just about live up to expectations, although there was, by the time the debut album hit the shops, the inevitable backlash.
Harry McVeigh (lead vocals, guitar), Charles Cave (bass guitar and backing vocals), and Jack Lawrence-Brown (drums) had been performing together since their late teens, initially under the name Fear of Flying. A couple of singles, produced by uber-producer Stephen Street, as well as some high-profile support slots on UK tours, hadn’t generated much success, and so the trio decided to have a serious rethink, choosing to ditch the name and to move to a darker, less pop-orientated sound.
The best part of five months was spent on refining and rehearsing, but all the while demos were being put out across various social media channels to generate a buzz. The extent to which it worked can be seen from Zane Lowe of BBC Radio 1 naming their song Death as ‘the hottest in the world‘ in early February 2008, despite it not having been released; in fact White Lies didn’t even have a record label and weren’t scheduled to make their live debut until 28 February 2008.
Within days of that debut, there were numerous offers on the table, with the band deciding to go with Fiction Records, part of the Universal Music empire. They were also added to a nationwide tour being promoted by the NME and by the end of May 2008, had also appeared on television, playing two songs on Later With Jools Holland on BBC2.
The deal with Fiction allowed for a small indie label to release the band’s debut single, Unfinished Business, on a limited edition 7″ vinyl. The debut for their new label was Death, the song hyped up many months earlier), and it only reached #52 in September 2008. Its follow-up would wait until January 2009, just a week before the debut album hit the shops:-
mp3: White Lies – To Lose My Life
It would only enter the charts #34, and drop down immediately, but as if to show that hit singles were no longer all that important in the grand scheme of things, the album, which was also called To Lose My Life, entered the charts at #1 the following week. The critics, however, were no longer fawning over White Lies now that they were no longer a secret.
The single was issued onto separate 7″ vinyl records as well as a CD. I’ve got your CD b-side on offer
mp3: White Lies – To Lose My Life (Filthy Dukes Remix)
The band is still going strong with a sixth studio album scheduled for a release later this year, supported by thirteen shows across the UK/Ireland in March and a very extensive 35-date trek around France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Spain and Portugal between 4 April and 25 May.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
I didn’t buy White Lies debut album, but they seemed to have a slew of hip remixers remodelling their tracks at the time – Filthy Dukes, as mentioned, Factory Floor, M83, Crystal Castles, Mirrors and Chase & Status. They also did an interesting cover of Talk Talk’s Give It Up for 2012’s Spirit Of Talk Talk album/project, but I’ll confess that I haven’t anything by them in the past decade.
This was the band that made me realise I was out of touch. In the before times (2019) they were due headline the local festival with a 10th anniversary celebration of To Lose my Life. Obviously the festival never went ahead.
I’d never heard of them, and they were big enough to headline with an album anniversary?
I got it and it is very good. And I am old, old, old and out of touch.
I felt really quite with it when the debut album came out because I’d already seen them live!! (supporting the Kaiser Chiefs but don’t hate me. They were really powerful and I loved the first three albums and then forgot about them. Bought the last album recently and they had definitely travelled in a direction I’m not sure I want to follow.
But the first album – great and I think I might just play it now. Thanks JC.
Oh. And the refrain from “To Lose My Life” is one of the most romantic sentiments and an unofficial anthem for me and Mrs DAM – “Lets grow old together, and die at the same time!”