- Artists:
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The surprise appearance of The Horrors' new single, 'Sea Within a Sea', has come as quite a shock to the vast majority who dismissed the band during their initial hype-fuelled rise. Where screaming excess and over the top clobber once held sway, the single’s video reveals a group of sombre aesthetes brooding over their instruments as they coolly erect an epic, eight minute wall of sound that slaps a motorik pulse onto the early 4AD catalogue, before slowly immersing it into a bubbling pool of kosmiche noise.
All this from a band who, until recently, were more famous for their tight trousers and haircuts than anything heard on their freakbeat inspired debut. Strange House wasn’t the turgid, forgettable affair some claimed it to be, but its punk-tinged, Screaming Lord Sutch antics and horror show B-movie shtick - a trick already perfected by The Cramps’ Lux Interior and Poison Ivy in the late ‘70s – lacked the weight needed to make a lasting impression on the wider landscape.
Two years have passed since the release of Strange House. The masses may have filed The Horrors away in the hyped yet forgettable folder during that time, but the band stayed busy. Various Horrors gave the public a glimpse of their broad record collections with DJ stints around London. Tomethy Furse and Spider Webb turned a love of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop into their excellent side project, Spider and the Flies, and the entire band reconvened to cover Suicide’s Shadazz for Blast First Petite’s Alan Vega tribute series.
In retrospect, perhaps 'Sea Within a Sea' shouldn’t have come as such a shocking surprise, but ultimately, attention spans are terminally short these days and no one can deny that the public’s gaze had started to shift away from the band even before the release of their debut.
Now though, all eyes are once again on The Horrors, and this time it’s not just the usual hyperbole prone culprits salivating in anticipation. Even typically level-headed critics are getting into a frothy mess over the sounds emanating from the black clad quintet’s sophomore LP, Primary Colours.
Those still unconverted to the band’s renewed cause are rightfully questioning this unexpected second wave of hype, yet something has become clear above the din of adjectives being tossed back and forth between journalists. The Horrors have done the one thing no other hyped to the heavens British guitar band has been able to do in the past ten years; they’ve given birth to a sophomore album that drastically improves upon its predecessor, and they’ve done it with considerable intelligence and style to spare.
Where once stood five carefully styled students looking to create a loud racket, Primary Colours reveals a confident, poised group of songwriters who aren’t afraid of acknowledging the sounds of years gone by while successfully sidestepping the pitfalls of pastiche. The influences are apparent and that can’t be denied. The Cure, The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Psychedelic Furs and every other black clad British rocker of a certain vintage have left their mark on Primary Colours. The pulsating chimes of opener 'Mirror’s Image' even tip a hat to Brian Eno’s early ambient work.
Detractors will naturally see the steady parade of influences as a chink in The Horrors’ dark armour. The band tap a source that has been exploited by every White Lie or Editor currently making the rounds. But where that lot apply a patina of mock gravitas to otherwise pedestrian songs and mistakenly identify certain brooding signifiers established by the likes of Joy Division as the essence of ‘serious’ guitar music, The Horrors, with the spectral vocals of 'Scarlet Fields' and the fuzzy swagger of 'I Can’t Control Myself' in tow, delve deeper on Primary Colours and grasp that what really lay beneath Ian Curtis and company’s moody exteriors was simply a group of adoring music fans. Music fans who refused to merely emulate and instead expressed a love of The Stooges, David Bowie’s alien escapades and the way-out sounds emanating from the Teutonic heartland by attempting to build upon, and occasionally tear down, what came before them. It may sound like a rudimentary point, but it’s only ever a constant few who appear to understand what it truly means, or entails.
Of course, it would be foolish to declare The Horrors new members of the musical elite and Primary Colours a landmark release - that’s something to be decided with the luxury of hindsight. For now, Primary Colours is a reminder that young British bands can actually progress to brilliant new heights, and perhaps, just perhaps, the occasional surprise in these media saturated times isn’t as endangered a beast as previously thought.
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amazing record. Definitely up there with 2009's best even with another 8 months to go.
What I cannot understand is how for some bands they receive mass flak for very obviously copying their influences while other, like this lot of poseurs, receive ludicrous adulation.
Did i miss the memo?
I think not.
These guys are fake.Please have the honesty to acknowledge rip-off merchants.Silly verdict, silly score.
a high 7 or 8 for me,
a big step forward for a band i was always fond of, and now have good reason to be! :p
Sophomore Sophomore Sophomore
This is a UK site. I wish dis would stop trying to be pitchfork
a) who cares whether a band is "fake" if what they produce is above ordinary?
b) bands that copy their influences are great if their influences are great.
c) there's copying your influences and there's copying your influences. It's all about the *way* the "influences" feed into the final product. E.g. pastiche (collage) is not the same as pastiche (imitation).
I like this album. I think there's a lot more to it than many will allow. In fact, I think it's wrong to describe it as a "steady parade of influences". The "influences" aren't sources of inspiration or models of song writing; they are materials used in often unexpected juxtaposition.
it's a brilliant record
we'll see how the year pans out but i think this is going to be in my top 3 albums this year. The first 3 tracks are greeeeeat
Good review
Just confirmed for Field Day this year aswell, so happy days all round!
there's a difference
between ripping off and absorbing influences.
i'm not a fan but you can tell they have a clear idea of what they are and what their influences are. their influences are ingrained in them and they understand them.
"grasp that what really lied beneath Ian Curtis..."
"Lay" not "Lied"! Lord a'mercy.
"it would be foolish to declare The Horrors new members of the musical elite "
Of course it would be foolish! It would be an overly excitable response at the very least. 'Landmarks' and the 'elite' are not made by wearing your influences so brazenly. Status like that should be placed on bands who transcend their influences and experiment with enough crazy ideas that they create something novel. This isn't it.
It is a cool album though. I like that a lot of it sounds wrong - especially when they bend the pitch down really queasily. Sea Within A Sea is easily the best song and it’s nice that a band put it at the end of an album instead of the start like they all keep doing recently. Gives me something to listen for.
Every poet must have the essence of his predecessors in his bones.
You can't NOT. Even more so with musicians, because the history is closer. Nothing is original, it's just re-configured in a new way. It's not a difficult concept to grasp.
It's also pretty obvious that the reviewer's saying the first record was criticised for being a 2D pastiche, while the new one is made with a bit more sophistication and thought. Besides, the Horrors have both been battered and chatted-up for their releases.
i like this album
a lot, but the 2nd half tails away a bit before the final track, so a solid 8/10 for me. brilliant effort by them, i played in some school bands with Josh, the guitarist, and he's always had a decent record collection (he still has a load of my cd's!)
I haven't been this excited about a record in a while,
which is nice :D
Ugh
Agreed, I hate that word.
amazing album.
not a 9 though, maybe with time but not first off.
nice review
I always thought they'd be one to watch despite their ropey beginnings. Rhys and Josh really know a thing or two about music and Faris really knows his post punk-He recommended some of my favourite bands in the post-punk genre via myspace several years back.
I don't think everyone should absolutely bum this record, as really it is the way music should be.
It could be the beginning of a Revolt against Warner Bros, EMI and Universal and their watered down bullshit music
.
ps- sea within a sea heavily interpolates NEU!'s Halloglabo. So it is kinda derivative.
.
i mean 'Hallogallo'
everyones arguing about how prominent their influences are
but ignoring the way that this is as bad as they always were
Excellent review CU
though I canna confirm your points cos I skipped over the Horrors on round 1... and probably would have done it again if not for you and Mike Diver and others arguing its merits: I'll download this right *after* 50 ft Wave (of Kristen Hersh I can be sure).
its also sounds a lot like a song by a band called Loop
the song is called "Mother Sky". but then again Loop probably ripped off that Neu song.
Listened to it a few times today.
It's good, not that amazing but it might grow on me. It's a shame this has to be one of the heights of British music at the moment.
That single is really really good.
I don't care if they've changed - look how much Joy Division changed after Warsaw (don't bite my head).
Having read the comments, I now realise that no-one is actually complaining about the total change of direcetion.
I just assumed people would be. Silly me.
Loop's Mother Sky...
... is actually by CAN, another Krautrock band - hence slight similarity (drums) to the song by NEU
anyway, where can I actually get hold of this album?
that everyone is talking about
A little faith can be rewarded, it seems
I'd been sold on Sheena is a Parasite two years ago but due to lack of expendable cash at the time I had to pass on Strange House, and it's on a overwhelming list of records I mean to buy when I'm not struggling to meet rent and eat. But I did get the feeling there was more to look forward to in the undertow of the hype. While Sea Within a Sea doesn't set me on fire, I do understand what they're doing with it and I feel it's a grower. But it's a very brave first single and I salute them for it.
Another hater
of "sophomore". It's a journalistic cliche. Would you ALSO start an article with "It is a truth universally acknolwedged..."?
I would enjoy this album a lot more
if it had no vocals
This band is not the enemy
how could you bash a pop band for having absorbed a repuatable set of influences for once, compared with the usual post Strokes/Libs/ *shudder* Arctic Monkeys stuff? Perhaps thier influences are more apparent because they consist of a more eclectic or unique set of bands, compared with many generic pop bands whos record collection begins with up the bracket and ends with whatever people say I am.....
My take...
http://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/the-horrors-primary-colours
(it's quite a bit like Charles')
i'll check the reference
I just heard 'a sea within a sea' and found it pleasantly impressive..Yet to hear the new album.
Think it was can
re-'Mother Sky" but i see what your saying.
checking it now
typically Spacerock or in this case Krauty-spacerock ..
this is a huge and welcome
surprise....like a young Icarus Line.
will people
stop complaining about bands being influenced by other bands? it's a silly argument, and I've really no time for the idea that some influences are better than others...some girls mothers are bigger than other girls mothers..er..
Anyway on first listen I find it pretty good, obv will need to give it a few more times to start to fully appreciate
I dont get the hype
over this album. Its rather like an over produced over stylised bucket of cowsw*nk. If Simon Cowell did "Goth Factor" or "Emo Idol" - The Horrors would be the stars of the show. To temper the mass hysteria and hype, heres an alternative view..
http://tinyurl.com/dg3qpq
DUH
it sounds exactly like a lost chameleons record. which is a real good thing.
I'll be interested to see how well this album sells
Even with a sweep of massively positive reviews and positive press behind them, I don't know five people who'd pay for this. Nick it off the internet, yes. Pay for it... No.
Absolutely love this record and 9/10 is spot on
I can almost forgive Farris Rotter's cynical dalliance with that awful Geldof ferral sprog. This is a great record, inventive and interesting. For the record I really liked Count In Fives off the first album, menacing as it was sinister.
OVERRATED.
i find this really dull. the arrangement of this song just cannot be carried on for as long as it does!
88
the horrors were always gd
Motorik pulse? Kosmiche noise?
What the fuck?
I heard 'Sea Within a Sea' and it feels like the perfect summation of 90% of guitar-based music released since the beginning of this decade.
Endless fascination with 80's musical trends which should really stay in the 80's.
Endless fascination with the 'post-punk sound'.
Here the reasonable must interject and kindly point out that, unfortunately, the eighties were shit and the only people saying any different are morons.
Cue repetitive drumbeats with 'dark' and 'echoing' bass lines. Tacked onto shitty staccato guitar riffs.
Roll on the synths, and all the pseudo-experimentation their use entails.
Roll on the the stupid haircuts and the death of melody.
When a band like The Horrors are held up as being on the cutting edge of music, all is pretty much lost. They're not really to blame.
An idiot child singled out for praise in a class full of idiot children is still an idiot - he or she simply happens to present his or her stupidity in a slightly more acceptable way.
It's not so much about invention as it is influence. Because The Horrors seem to drop the right names and allude musically to the right fads, they're wonder of wonders accepted and praised by the critics. Fuck The Horrors and all their shit. If this is what passes for great music, then fuck the reviewer of this album, too.
Can they do it Live?
Great album, had it for a week now and only getting better so far.
Who's coming to see if they can do it live?
http://musicmuleblog.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/the-horrors-electric-ballroom-june-5th/
what the hell does that mean?
'this might be 9 in a few months, check back'
Thank god...
The Horrors ditched the rock/punk type awfulness that was their first album! I was a bit apprehensive when it came to Primary Colours but my friend insisted that I give it a listen and I'm glad I did as I was very pleasantly surprised. I thoroughly enjoyed it... Indie with hints of electronica! This is definitely a step forward for the band! Loved it!
someones dad has a great record collection ..
this is a really good album, of course its not original, but then what is these days? everything thats coming out of indie or alternatives hallowed halls sounds like its an 80s transplant. The Horrors (really) arn't afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves (and boy are those sleeves big) but at least this sounds like its from post punk 1978 rather than spandau ballet early 80s. PiL, Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the list is a long one and it can all be clearly heard within, however what the horrors have done is woven this into something that is a whole lot bigger than the sum of its parts, there is a definate cohesion to this album and it all flows pretty well, the spectorish wall of sound linking all the songs together, and there is also the feeling that the band are actually beginning to learn their instruments rather than just pretending to be The Cramps. I think that they are quite lucky as the majority of people who hear this album won't have heard many of the bands that have heavily influenced it. (c'mon, I Cant Control Myself - I was waiting for siouxsie to start singing ..)
Bravo. album of the year thus far.
I wonder if they can do it live?
i jsur read a plan b review
as opposed to this one, that review was spot on
if it wasn't the horrors
who made this record - would it have been a big deal? of course it would. we would have nothing to base our shitty, pathetic judgements on. this is a fucking GREAT album, it is mature and was way better than I had expected and yet i always knew that the whole fashion thing was a clever PR set up.
of course the haters will continue to hate: its a HOW DARE YOU EVEN TRY TO MAKE SUCH AMAZING MUSIC YOU'RE NOT WORTHY OF.
this album is a clever, cool fuck you to all that.
i love it.
no, it isn't.
it's dull, repetitive, steals from the past and is overall depressingly shit and overrated, they can't play and the guy can't sing. so, this is the pinnacle of british indie? poor country.
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Great album, had it for a week now and only getting better so far.
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I dunno if i'd give this as a high score. and "this might be a 9 in a few months" is a funny comment.
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