Never Let Me Down Again
The Horrors
V (2017)
Wolf Tone/Caroline International
U.K. Indie rapscallions, The Horrors, return with their 5th studio album.
From the start, an Industrial veneer encapsulates the entire LP. The similarities to Depeche Mode aren’t just tired peddled cliches, it’s actually a great mapping tool to see just where this band sit 12 years after forming, breaking free of their Psychedelic Furs phase. Hardly a surprise to see them supporting Dave Gahan & Co on tour in 2017.
My own personal disappointment of the previous 2014 album, “Luminous”, was laid to rest after being blown away by the first single, ‘Machine’.
It showed a patient maturity in executing a complicated layered structure, that still keeps pulling you right back in again with the chorus. Producer Paul Epworth, clearly calling upon his earlier remixing duties with Bloc Party, Nine Inch Nails & Interpol.
As with all electronic music made after 1979, Brian Eno gets his ubiquitous nod here too. The Horrors join the long & winding queue of British Indie elite in raising a glass to the pioneering wizard of BLEEPS, distortion & reverb…..from the opening track, ‘Hologram’ – right up to the final chords of ‘Something to Remember Me By’, the most recent single.
Forget the dampness of ‘Luminous‘. The past glories of ‘Primary Colours‘ (2009) & ‘SKYING‘ (2011) have a new suitable successor. It’s taken a bit of time, but it’s finally here. “V” is now the official music for the masses.
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