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Jan 18, 2011A welcome surprise in all of this comes by way of White Lies' ability to break up the gloom with the occasional soaring moment.
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Alternative PressJan 19, 2011Taken individually, Ritual's songs can meander too much; as a whole, however, the album is a success. [Feb 2011, p.90]
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Jan 18, 2011Despite being disabled with rotten cover art, Ritual is a sturdy affair, and one that should continue White Lies' steady ascent towards something serious and important.
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Feb 18, 2011Ritual is 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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Jan 18, 2011They've mastered the anthemic choruses; all they need to work on now is the consistency.
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Jan 20, 2011There are moments where the mini-pops Joy Division approach hits paydirt, notably on the relentless, single-minded surge of the single, 'Bigger Than Us'. But mostly the trio are at their best when they wriggle free from the colossal shadows they're hiding under.
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Jan 18, 2011While the songs aren't exactly good per se, they're certainly not hateful. You'd dance to them. Maybe you'd have to be drunk. Maybe you'd have to be in Reflex. But you'd dance to them.
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MojoApr 4, 2011The album delivers on the promise. {Feb 2011, p.104]
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Jan 18, 2011A few of the tracks have a moment, usually a chorus, that you might want to play back a few times. But like Editors, taken as an album there's nothing unique, rewarding, or even merely engaging enough to be worthy of another spin.
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Jan 18, 2011In the end, Ritual is not a bad album. But neither is it the album it would like to think it is.
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Jan 27, 2011The anthemic choruses largely remain but are endlessly unsatisfying and constrained. Given the unmistakeably grittier and less atmospheric qualities of this album it was the right to attempt to temper them; I'm just not so sure they pulled it off.
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Jan 18, 2011Producer Alan Moulder (Depeche Mode, Interpol) helps them cautiously move into industrial territory, as on Turn The Bells. But if McVeigh's methods irked you before, they only get worse on Ritual.
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Jan 20, 2011In context, Ritual is the wrong title -- very little here feels repetitive or procedural. The album is a flight of fancy most listeners will want to take again and again.
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Jan 20, 2011Problem is, for the second straight album, they do so with the same exact set of tools as every other band in this sphere. So 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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Jan 31, 2011It 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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Q MagazineFeb 1, 2011The Ealing doom merchants come of age. [Feb. 2011, p. 110]
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Jan 18, 2011What evades White Lies is the candid charm of his Brit-gloom forebears. The sleek synth tunes are more anthemic this time out, but the lyrics are no less overwrought.
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Jan 18, 2011Overall, Ritual is too much of the same.
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Jan 18, 2011Ritual is so grandiose that it rarely has room to breathe.
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Jan 18, 2011It's a decent set, but one whose pulse remains steady throughout.
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Jan 18, 2011Every gesture feels like flagging down a passing ship from a barren island. Every emotion registers on the Richter scale. This can be wickedly effective, as many a successful British rock band will attest. And periodically on this album, the stars and planets do align.
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Jan 27, 2011Most tracks here aim to be an anthem, but none has the requisite melodic clout. It's hard to see them entering the super league on this visit.
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UncutJan 24, 2011The trio still favour widescreen grandeur, epic choruses and portentous keyboards, but they've exorcised their Duran Duran and Billy idol tendencies. [Feb 2011, p.105]
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Jan 21, 2011Unfortunately, they're not quite tall enough yet to ride the same coaster as Editors, much less Interpol, much, much less Joy Division.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 24 out of 35
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Mixed: 8 out of 35
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Negative: 3 out of 35
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Jan 22, 2011
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Aug 19, 2013
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Oct 26, 2011