17 March 2009

"NEW FEAR WILL CATCH US UNAWARES"
>>>The Horrors>>>"Sea Within A Sea">>>



















I used to hate The Horrors. Serious hate. The bone-tight jeans, the Shoreditch haircuts, just the general shit-ness surrounding them. They were awful live too. Why Arctic Monkeys picked them as a support, I'll never know. But it appears the 20-odd months since their last release appaears to have done The Horrors the world of good.

Gone are the hair-sprayed back-combed birds nest hairdos. Done away with are the silly "goffick" stage names. The Sonics ripoff guitar sound have been abolished and Faris Badwan's guttral howl has been replaced with a sombre, mournful croon. In short, it's a world away from anything on "Strange House". There were some influences on the debut that pointed in this direction, but it's tottally unexpected that they'd ever produce this. An 8 minute comeback single, that effectively chucks the sound of Echo & The Bunnymen, Neu, Bauhaus and so many more post punk bands into a melting pot and comes out with something brilliant.

"Sea Within A Sea" sounds almost ethereal in places, verging on Joy Division territory. In fact, Badwan's vocals are errily similar to Ian Curtis in places. The shoegaze feel to the song makes it all the more enchanting, especially at the four minute mark, whilst avoiding being utterly downbeat and depressing. All of the instruments compliment each other and make the song a likely target for a remix or two, If the rest of sophomore album "Primary Colours" follows this route (and accroding to NME.com, it most likely will) then The Horrors will have gained at least one more fan.

Check out the video at www.thehorrors.co.uk (watch out though, it is rather flashy)

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