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Thus far, the BBC “Sound of 2009″ countdown has revealed three artists that are supposed to be the best new up-and-coming talent in 2009. I can’t really drum up much interest in today’s number two, London alt rock trio White Lies, simply because their music is so goddamn dark and dreary, too gothic in its intensity and subject matter for my taste, like in “Unfinished Business,” a number about the protagonist’s own death and sung from his point-of-view:

“I broke down in horror at you standing there
The glow from the moon shone through cracks in your hair
I shouted with passion ‘I love you so much’
But feeling my skin, it was cold to the touch
You whispered where are you?
I questioned your doubt
But soon realized you were talking to God now

You got blood your hands
And I know it’s mine
I just need more time
So get of your low, let’s dance like we used to
But there’s a light in the distance, waiting for me
I will wait for you
So get of your low, let’s kiss like we used to.”

The Guardian’s Maddy Costa weighed in last October: “There is a startling disparity between the cherubic features of White Lies frontman Harry McVeigh and the sound that emerges when he opens his mouth. Imagine a horror movie in which a prepubescent choirboy, radiating innocence, becomes possessed and starts singing in a rumbling bass dredged up from five fathoms deep: that’s the effect McVeigh conveys. It is instantly riveting.”

I don’t necessarily agree with her about it being riveting, but if I was David Letterman and I had to decide whether the music was something or nothing, I’d probably say that it’s certainly something even if that something wasn’t quite for me. The band’s 2009 debut album, To Lose My Life, comes out Jan. 19 in the UK on Fiction Records. No U.S. release date has been confirmed.

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