After nearly 20 years making music, there are few bands who’ve created a canon as determinedly innovative and consistently critically-acclaimed as The Horrors. Emerging as zeitgeist-shaking garage-goths on their 2007 debut ‘Strange House’, before taking a sharp left turn for their Mercury-nominated follow up ‘Primary Colours’, since the beginning they’ve roamed freely between genres. 2011’s ‘Skying’ won the NME Award for Best Album; ‘V’ was heralded as “a triumph” in a five-star Guardian review, while 2021’s pair of EPs - ‘Lout’ and ‘Against The Blade’ - marked a new chapter with their most industrial, uncompromising output yet.

Whilst the end results have changed, however, at their core has always been the same unbending commitment and bloody-minded allegiance to the cause. The Horrors are not and will never be a band that approach the job lightly. They’re musicians who’ll funnel everything they are into the process, at the expense of health, wealth and sometimes sanity. And so, whilst sixth album ‘Night Life’ sees the band once more shapeshift into a new form, with a new sonic outlook and - this time - a new line up, in some ways The Horrors are still as they ever were.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: There aren't many other bands that have been as consistently present in my life over the last 20 years as The Horrors. I vividly remember the big hair and the raucous live shows that accompanied their debut in 2007; but with every release they changed (sometimes a little, sometimes a lot) and with every release they matured (and so did I!) And while I didn't love every new album immediately, those I initially disliked are now among my all-time favourites. In a way, it feels like The Horrors, like a big brother who has seen the world, ready to pass on their wisdom, were showing me the way during my arguably most formative years. The haunting ‘Night Life', more industrial and electronic than its predecessor, has also been a grower, but it wouldn't be The Horrors if they didn't manage to convince me that it was time for them to move on - and that it was worth it! Here's to the next 20 years.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Ariel
2. Silent Sister
3. The Silence That Remains
4. Trial By Fire
5. The Feeling Is Gone

SIDE B
6. Lotus Eater
7. More Than Life
8. When The Rhythm Breaks
9. L.A. Runaway 

Recorded over 15 months in the band’s east London studio-laboratory-bunker with co-producer Craig Silvey, it’s the follow-up to the band’s 2007 debut Strange House, the Mercury-nominated Primary Colours (2009), and the critically-acclaimed Skying (2011) – a record that entered the charts at Number Five, featured prominently in the end-of-year magazine/newspaper polls, and was anointed NME's Album Of The Year.

Luminous is an album that, for once, merits that over-used phrase “keenly-anticipated”. Tipped to be one of the biggest British albums of 2014, it follows the breakthrough success of the silver-selling Skying, an album beloved of heroes and peers such as Bobby Gillespie, Alex Turner and Trent Reznor and that also brought The Horrors into the world of the Radio 1 A-list and Later… With Jools Holland. Tasking themselves with, as ever, moving onwards, The Horrors determined to make an album that was brighter, more positive, more electronic. ‘We’ve refined our sound,” affirms lead singer Faris Badwan, “and in terms of songwriting it is the record I'm happiest with.” Or, in the words of bass player Rhys Webb, “it’s not so much about heavier guitars as a heavier potency… We want to make music you can dance to, music that elevates…” Luminous by name, luminous by nature: this is an album radiating light and energy. These songs are The Horrors writing at their instinctive, intuitive and accessible best.

By way of explaining the intense but unhurried writing and recording of the album, the frontman says that, “If you're happy with one record I think you always have those fears that you'll somehow never be able to write a good song again. But I think between us we would never allow something that we weren't happy with to be released. I can imagine it taking us 10 years to finish something – but I'd rather that than be a band who regress with each release.” Shedding some light on the intra-band, in-studio creative process, keyboard player Tom Furse mentions an ever-evolving playlist featuring “so much, the usual – Beatles, Sabbath, Kraftwerk also Eno, J Dilla, Metroplex/Trax Records…but as always psychedelic music from all over the world, soul, funk, dub…”

Further input came from producer Paul Epworth (Adele, Paul McCartney, Foster The People) on the track Falling Star. There was also a crucial role for a new piece of kit. Badwan reveals that Richard Russell, boss of their label XL, “had the pyramid synth from our Changing The Rain video built for us.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Beautifully produced, deep, melodic, doomy yet somehow skyscraping album. Great songs, bringing the past into the future. Their best album.

TRACK LISTING

1. Chasing Shadows
2. First Day Of Spring
3. So Now You Know
4. In And Out Of Sight
5. Jealous Sun
6. Falling Star
7. I See You
8. Change Your Mind
9. Mine And Yours
10. Sleepwalk

The Horrors make their eagerly awaited return with the release of a new album on XL Recordings. ‘Skying’, self-produced and recorded in The Horrors’ own self built studio in London’s Dalston, was mixed by Grammy Award winner Craig Silvey. It features ten brand new tracks and includes the forthcoming single ‘Still Life’, also released on 11th of July. ‘Skying’ is the band’s third long player, and follows 2009’s Mercury Prize nominated ‘Primary Colours’ and their debut ‘Strange House’ which was released in 2007.

TRACK LISTING

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

The Horrors follow-up 2007's critically acclaimed debut "Strange House" with "Primary Colours", a record that represents a band striving for musical progression and, in doing so, finding an interesting new direction. While the gothic punk influence of such bands as The Cramps remains, there is now a strong 80s Chameleons / Echo & The Bunnymen style flavour to The Horrors' sound, resulting in a well-rounded and engaging listen. Includes the single "Sea Within A Sea".

TRACK LISTING

1. Mirror's Image
2. Three Decades
3. Who Can Say
4. Do You Remember
5. New Ice Age
6. Scarlet Fields
7. I Only Think Of You
8. I Can't Control Myself
9. Primary Colours
10. Sea Within A Sea

This South Coast outfit mix skacore, folk and good old fashioned punk rock and produced a violin led frenzy of sound. Laconic S'thern vocal delivery (the singer has a nice sneer in his voice) and bags of energy. New on Household Name.