Published by Mason Oldridge, 13 February 2022
AITNTFA provides easy-listening tunes but nothing special in an effort that resembles the band’s self-proclaimed influence Talking Heads.
The album starts off promising with funk elements in opener “Am I Really Going to Die” while McVeigh sways between questioning and denying mortality.
The titular track serves up a pleasant backing beat but lacks emotion; however, I Don’t Wanna Go to Mars is definitely the standout track. The memorable vocals matched with pounding guitar places this single as the highlight.
Unfortunately, Roll December fails to justify its almost 7 minute length, a composition that really requires a rhapsody of multiple sections like Radiohead’s Paranoid Android or Muse’s Knights of Cydonia.
Disappointingly, there is not enough variety between tracks to give meaning to the tracklist order; an element important in providing a narrative and turning a random selection of songs into a story-telling vehicle.
In a landscape saturated with indie rock, a band has to convey a particular uniqueness to separate them from the rest which White Lies, although provenly talented, appears to lack, running the risk of fading into the background behind more prominent groups.
4/10