To Lose My Life
by White Lies
Metascore
58

Mixed or average reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 17
  3. Negative: 1 out of 17
  1. New Musical Express (NME)
    80
    For all its glum pronouncements of murder, mortality and loss, it’s an ecstatic listen, ponderous party music.
  2. Q Magazine
    80
    This could have all ended in Tears For Fears, but their winning seriousness is matched by a penchant for a grandiose but hummable melody. [Feb 2009, p.119]
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  3. Drowned In Sound
    70
    On the whole, To Lose My Life is a solid debut that will certainly divide opinion, but approach with an open mind and dividends will be reaped en masse.
  5. Alternative Press
    70
    There's a slickness to the sound as well-not to mention a pop sensibility, which could combine to give the band a shot in the Anglophobic US market. [May 2009, p.122]
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  6. No Ripcord
    60
    It's not quite bad enough to be dubbed an honest failure, but it's flaws are too debilitating for me to recommend blowing a tenner on a copy.
  7. Uncut
    60
    Still mourning the loss of The Bravery? Look no further. [Feb 2009, p.85]
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  8. Mojo
    60
    White Lies naivety is emphatically brokered by their songs ability to rouse and inspire. [Feb 2009, p.109]
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  9. Hartford Courant
    60
    While that darkness gives the album its semblance of originality, it may prove incompatible with the group's mass-market ambitions.
  10. Under The Radar
    60
    To Lose My Life is satisfying and consisitent throughout, even if White Lies treads daringly close to one-trick-pony territory. [Spring 2009, p.75]
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  11. Spin
    50
    Their debut begins with a rousing arena-rock anthem called 'Death' and then delivers detached variations on the same subject for the next nine tracks with a professionalism that's simultaneously compelling and creepy.
  12. Blender
    50
    On their debut, this trio of fashionably dour West London lads crafts wildly overwrought goth-pop weepers with choruses that would make excellent Robert Smith High School yearbook inscriptions.
  13. Rolling Stone
    50
    White Lies' polished synth rock effuses more melodrama than any young group should be allotted.
  14. Dot Music
    40
    The feeling remains though that their broad emotional strokes will have to concede something to intimacy and solitude to ever really win hearts.
  15. The Guardian
    40
    The results are oddly compelling, if only for the ridiculous way in which their lyrics handle fear, death and despair.
  16. Pitchfork
    40
    If you liked the new Oasis and U2 records, never bought "Turn on the Bright Lights," and tend to ignore clumsy lyrics, you might enjoy raising your beer to this album just fine.
  17. NOW Magazine
    40
    Songs like 'Death' and 'Nothing To Give' are strident due to big production and well-placed hooks. But commercially geared goth is so much more hideous than the real thing because it wants to be palatable and accepted.
  18. musicOMH.com
    20
    To Lose My Life is an album made to a predefined plan with skill and no heart.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 47 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 39 out of 47
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 47
  3. Negative: 4 out of 47
  1. Pablomin
    Apr 30, 2014
    10
    I'm a fan of good music first and foremost. This is without a doubt one of the best albums I've heard from any band. The lyrics, some of theI'm a fan of good music first and foremost. This is without a doubt one of the best albums I've heard from any band. The lyrics, some of the darkest and thought provoking one can find. Music should drive emotion, and this offering sure does - big time ! Brilliant album.… Full Review »
  2. coldplaz
    Jan 22, 2011
    9
    Catchier than Interpol, brighter than Joy Division and less serious than Editors
    Amazing album, Death was good song, but I fell in love with    Catchier than Interpol, brighter than Joy Division and less serious than Editors
    Amazing album, Death was good song, but I fell in love with them since farewell to the fairground
    the only weak song is 50 on our foreheads
    I was waiting for some good new indie band to enter the charts    … Full Review »
  3. Joffnatic
    May 27, 2022
    9
    This album is timeless. A blast from start to finish and by far their best album.
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