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The Horrors know all about deceptive appearances. Their mid-00s emergence saw the music press in a lather, hype peaking with inevitable derision creeping forth from (perhaps rightly) cynical corners of the blogosphere. Garage-punk squall, a look (and sound) that was half-Birthday Party, half-Cramps, undertones of something decidedly goth: while the Southend-spawned band presented a great-looking package, the style-over-substance accusers were many. But the distorted riffs of the band's 2007 debut Strange House would give way to something else. By blindsiding with an assault designed to divide, the five-piece managed to work away in the shadows on a second LP that reinvented them as psychedelic Krautrock cosmonauts. Primary Colours, said set, couldn't have been better received. Doubters changed their tunes, and the Mercury Prize panel responded with a nomination. In a year of weak competition, it should have won.
So it's no surprise to find that album three positions The Horrors in a brand-new musical era; for them, anyway. From the modular melodies and hypnotic hooks of Primary Colours, distinctly 70s in design, they've landed in the 80s with anthemic synth-powered pop-rock at the height of its commercial powers. This much is perfectly clear from this collection's lead track, Still Life, which presents such parallels with Simple Minds that it's a wonder deeper research doesn't reveal it to be a forgotten cut penned by Jim Kerr around 1982.
Tracklist
1 Changing The Rain
2 You Said
3 I Can See Through You
4 Endless Blue
5 Dive In
6 Still Life
7 Wild Eyed
8 Moving Further Away
9 Monica Gems
10 Oceans Burning