On 18 August 2013, the album debuted at No. 4 on the UK Albums Chart.[7]
In an interview with NME in January 2013, bassist Charles Cave said that the album was the band's most melodic record, but continued the definitive White Lies sound. The album follows a story of a couple who leave a provincial area for a big city and, according to Cave, the idea of equality in a relationship is a recurring theme.[8]
Big TV was the first White Lies album to feature 12 rather than 10 tracks, two of which ("Space I" and "Space II") are instrumental interludes.
Formats and packaging
The album was released as both as a regular CD and a deluxe 2CD hardback book edition, featuring seven original demos of songs from the album and stills from the studio sessions. The Japanese version included the seven demos from the hardback book edition as well as a remix of "There Goes Our Love Again", all on one disc.[citation needed]Big TV was also released digitally and on 180gsm vinyl.[9]
The cover artwork for the album is a painting, "Pilot 2", by New York City-based artist Michael Kagan.[10][11]
Promotion
The track "Getting Even" was released on 4 June 2013 as a free download on White Lies' SoundCloud page.[12] The song charted on Polish radio station Eska Rock, peaking at No. 1.[13]
"There Goes Our Love Again", the first official single from the album, was released on 5 August 2013.[2][14] The song was played on the air for the first time on 18 June 2013, exclusively on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show.[15]
In July 2013, White Lies played three intimate shows at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen in London, celebrating the five-year anniversary of the band's first ever gig at the same venue.[16] They played tracks from Big TV and some of their earlier songs in front of 300 fans each night.[17] In August 2013, they made their Main Stage debut at Reading and Leeds Festivals.[18][19] During their summer/fall 2013 tour, the band played more than 30 concerts in Europe and North America.[20]
On 29 July 2013, the band made the song "Change" available to stream on their official SoundCloud page.[21]
On 16 September 2013, White Lies announced that the next single from the album would be "First Time Caller", and they released an official music video for the song.[22]
Big TV received generally favourable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 64, based on 18 reviews.[23]
Matt Collar of AllMusic wrote that White Lies "sound even more engaged and clear-eyed than on the ambitious, stylized Ritual," and they "combine the urgent passions of their debut with the conceptual ambitions of their sophomore effort and by doing so, make the best album of their career".[24] Cai Trefor of Clash magazine rated the album 7 out of 10, and described it as leaning towards retro, but also sounding firmly in the present, "utilising electronic samples with classic valve-driven guitar chords to accompany the trademark baritone of McVeigh".[25] The Line of Best Fit's reviewer Ryan Thomas noted the album's 1980s atmosphere but said that "with influences visible, nods clearly marked, White Lies aren't just repackaging yesterday's hits as their own. Instead they're making use of abandoned utensils to create anew, achieving catharsis through resourcefulness. Yes, they are working with a previously-explored aesthetic, but they are molding it into a beautifully-original product, per a vision that refuses to forget music's former greatness".[28]
