EDITORS – In This Light And On This Evening (Kitchenware)
I have been a fan of Editors since day one, and thought that their last album ‘An End Has A Start’ was a real step up from ‘The Back Room’, so I was quite looking forward to this one. Before I got the album, however, I heard first single ‘Papillon’, and my first thoughts were that I hope that the rest of the album is not like this. Well, the bad news is that it is, and so for me the love affair is over. Like Bloc Party before them they have taken the very things which stood them apart from other bands and replaced them with run of the mill synths and R&B drum beats to be just another indie-pop band aiming at chart success. The drum machine and synths at the beginning of ‘Bricks And Mortar’ are twenty years behind the times, and even Tom’s vocals can’t stop this song from sounding horribly dated. ‘Papillon’ is next up, and once again the synths make it sound so retro that you can’t really take it seriously. Depeche Mode for the noughties – do we really need it? ‘You Don’t Know Love’ is one of the few tracks to hark back to their old sound, and when the guitar makes an appearance you realise just how much it is missed on the other songs. Some tracks do work, and ‘The Big Exit’ is one such, with its martial drumming and Tom’s higher register vocal making for an atmospheric piece which easily rivals their earlier work. ‘Like Treasure’ is another song where the old Editors peek through, with its catchy melody and pulsing rhythm making a welcome respite from the depressing synth-pop. ‘Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool’ sounds like it could be good, with its Throbbing Gristle-like title and radio-friendly chorus, but in the end it is just another case of style over substance and doesn’t really leave a lasting impression. ‘Walk The Fleet Road’ at least ends the album on a high, with one of their classic ballads that even their new sound can’t ruin, but it just makes me miss the old band even more. Like the last Bloc Party album, this is not a total disaster, and there is probably enough good stuff on here to warrant another couple more listens, but the real disappointment is the fact that the band had the potential to produce a stunning third album, and instead of forging forward they seem content to experiment with a sound that was pretty much derided in its time by real rock fans, and even more so twenty years on. If this new direction is set in stone then I am afraid that they have lost a fan, but at least I can still enjoy those first two albums.
