To the imagined ire of purists everywhere, The Horrors have made a fruitful career by aping the genres of yore with enough ingenuity and respect to avoid being called derivative or dilettantes. To some extent of course. Their debut LP was a clumsy homage to The Cramps which revealed little substance beneath its snarling facade and odes to 19th century serial killers but their followup Primary Colours (2009) was about as fluid, focused and self-assured as modern albums get. It garnered critical acclaim in a Mercury Prize nod and NME’s album of the year and signaled a new allegiance to krautrock, shoegaze and post-punk via elegiac first single “Sea Within A Sea”.
Which reminds us, these guys are great at picking first singles. Third album Skying benefits from yet another fine choice in New Wave grower “Still Life”. A contender for single of the year and yet another incremental shift toward other genres, this time the stately synth-work and unabashed romanticism of The Psychedelic Furs, Tears For Fears and the British New Wave. Can they sustain the momentum? Stream Skying in its entirety and find out for yourself.
