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9.0
20531
9.0 |
The Fly
Astoundingly assured for a second album, 'Ritual' is a stunning, mesmerising listen
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8.0
20565
8.0 |
Independent on Sunday
This one was made to be heard in stadia
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8.0
20198
8.0 |
Q
They're so single-minded, so focused and effective, it's impossible not to root for them and admire them. Print edition only
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8.0
20199
8.0 |
Mojo
Adding 80s polish and industrial muscle to their melodic gloom-mongering. Print edition only
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8.0
20270
8.0 |
The Irish Times
Overall this is a beguiling work and a steady step-up for a band who are really hitting their stride
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7.4
22070
7.4 |
Beats Per Minute
An enthralling album, highlighting a band flexing their musical muscles, trying to grow and add new sounds to their existing palette
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7.0
22689
7.0 |
Rave Magazine
Rituals turns the magnifying glass inward to analyse internal shortcomings – romantic, familial, professional
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7.0
20591
7.0 |
Clash
White Lies may have justified their own hype
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6.0
20769
6.0 |
State
There are without question some fine moments here ... but they are interrupted by moments of blandness that make it much less enjoyable as a full album than To Lose My Life
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6.0
20983
6.0 |
State
There is some sense that here’s a band pushing and playing with their sound a bit
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6.0
21683
6.0 |
FasterLouder
An album that with some more studio time, could have had a few better-planned layers of intricate depth added within the overall sound of the record
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6.0
20465
6.0 |
BBC
Ritual is a sturdy affair, and one that should continue White Lies’ steady ascent towards something serious and important
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6.0
20506
6.0 |
The Guardian
Missing one key ingredient – a sense of urgency
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6.0
20512
6.0 |
The Independent
Chunky fuzz-chord motorik and synth strings
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6.0
20577
6.0 |
NME
Not a bad album. But neither is it the album it would like to think it is
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6.0
20541
6.0 |
Evening Standard
Some new electronic touches add a dash of Duran Duran to the earlier Joy Division comparisons
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6.0
20318
6.0 |
Uncut
The shifts are subtle but effective. Print edition only
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5.0
20399
5.0 |
Drowned In Sound
Most of the music here sounds like Duran Duran trying to do a Depeche Mode impression
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5.0
20524
5.0 |
Entertainment.ie
Though there's plenty to like about White Lies second album, not one song here has the immediacy or verve of singles like 'Farewell to the Fairground' or 'Death'
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5.0
20570
5.0 |
The Observer
Nods to Joy Division, the Killers and Interpol are myriad, huge gloomy choruses have been bulk-manufactured for stadiums
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5.0
20794
5.0 |
God Is In The TV
Some songs are, in laymen’s terms, just not very good, lumbering along with lazy synths and no real gusto to them
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5.0
20701
5.0 |
No Ripcord
The anthemic choruses largely remain but are endlessly unsatisfying and constrained
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4.0
20620
4.0 |
The Scotsman
Second hand sonic imitations
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4.0
20623
4.0 |
Rolling Stone
The group remains as bleak as a London winter
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4.0
21994
4.0 |
Consequence Of Sound
A hodgepodge of sound that doesn’t seem to fit
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4.0
21224
4.0 |
PopMatters
It may be possible to have an intimate relationship with Ritual, but White Lies’ love of bombast would seem to mitigate against it
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-
4.0
20543
4.0 |
Daily Telegraph
Most tracks here aim to be an anthem, but none has the requisite melodic clout
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-
4.0
20520
4.0 |
musicOMH
It's an aggravatingly mediocre listen, unapologetic in banal self-seriousness, and approaches its emptied, prewritten songs with a bizarre sense of territoriality
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3.0
20772
3.0 |
Under The Radar
White Lies is not as complicated musically or lyrically as Interpol, not as gloomy as Editors, and nowhere near as dangerous and sexy as Joy Division
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2.5
20723
2.5 |
Pitchfork
Critiquing Ritual threatens to be a process of listing obvious influences that's just as dull as actually listening to the thing
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2.0
20617
2.0 |
Scotland on Sunday
Enough to make you pray for a debilitating dry ice accident
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1.0
20293
1.0 |
The Quietus
If you buy it for any member of your family you are both demonstrating that you have no respect for them and contributing to the decline of civilization
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