White Lies – Night Light

White Lies should be commended. When they broke through in 2009 with their debut album, To Lose My Life… reaching number one in the UK album charts, they were seen as a pop-light version of Interpol or Editors who in turn sketched their DNA from Joy Division. The trio of White Lies had a song called Death and wrote about existential dread to icy beats not far removed from the poppiness of Erasure. But these shiny goths have proved they were more than replicants. Over the years, Harry McVeigh, Charles Cave and Jack Lawrence-Brown have honed their craft, dabbling in genres and shape-shifting while remaining resolutely what fans loved about them way back at the dawn of the new millennium. Night Light, their seventh studio album, is one of their best yet, even when they veer into Bryan Adams-cheese on ballad Everything Is OK.

Album opener Nothing On Me is a pulsating Stranger Things take on the Miami Vice theme tune before turning into a booming Flock of Seagulls belter. It’s a heady opener as the hook-laden tunes follow. Keep Up has the synth and lyrical stabs of Peter Gabriel while Juice is a career highlight that will be sung to the rafters when fans get together on their January 2026 tour. It’s a rumbling rocky beast as McVeigh sings: 'I don’t believe in fate, except for when I do'. White Lies are a band who have mastered their own fate. And that’s no lie.

Listen to: Nothing On Me, Juice, Keep Up