So you want something
blacker than black, yeah? Look to Birmingham, England
quartet Editors
then – with the pretty guitars of Interpol and the
meandering vocals of, well, Interpol, the influence
of Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen and the Cure
is readily apparent on their debut The Back Room.
Ain’t it grand?
Well, actually, kinda yeah. The songs on The
Back Room have all the dark hooks and moodiness
of Interpol’s excellent second album Antics,
complete with the tunes to match: the first three
songs on the album – “Lights”, “Munich”, and the
outstanding single “Blood” – are as brilliantly
hooky as the likes of “Slow Hands”. There’s more
mood to the sound of Editors than there is in Interpol’s
anthems; less of a case of singles and b-sides,
with The Back Room a well-rounded debut
album.
“All Sparks” indeed is plentiful with hooks, while
the yearning vocals of Tom Smith on the spacey “Camera”,
while the guitars of Smith and Chris Urbanowicz shimmer
and chime like those of Daniel Kessler and/or, (dare
we say it?), the Edge. Where Editors strength lies
is in the power of their composition – songs like “Fingers
in the Factories”, “Someone Says”, and especially
the triumphant single “Bullets” that splits those
two tracks are entirely accomplished, and brilliant
rendered in varying shades of, well, black.
The expansiveness of “Open Your Arms” offers respite
from the procession of great pop songs to show that
Editors have depth as well as pop brilliance in their
repertoire. That’s one of the most exciting thing
about this pretty stunning debut – it’s not just
a solid beginning but a remarkably assured one, and
one that gets better the more you listen to it. You
get the sense that this is a band that will continue
to grow as they gain more experience and get better
as they gain more experience. For all those writing
it off as a shallow reinterpretation of the same
heroes that inspired Interpol, they couldn’t be more
wrong; Editors show tremendous promise for future
advancement on this excellent debut album. Now it’s
just a matter of making sure that there’s no stagnation
in sound.
