The band that people used to love to hate is now the band everyone is surprised to like.
Not since the Beastie Boys released Pauls Boutique in 1989 has a musical reinvention been not only so unexpected but so very welcome. On Primary Colours there is little trace of the flailing garage-shlock of The Horrors debut Strange House. This time around they boldly take the alternative indie of the Psychedelic Furs and mix it with Th’ Faith Healers cyclic avant-garde lurch. Mirror’s Image begins the proceedings with its Closer-era Joy Division keyboards and reverberating passages of warped guitar that go on to underpin the rest of the album and over these edgy textures Faris Badwan tells of romantic encounters and snarls his kitchen sink dramas. The title track is an Eno-flavoured college rock gem that could sit quite happily on the soundtrack to any John Hughes film from the 1980s. Despite the streamlining it is clear that the band still have bite, as evidenced by the thrilling Goth-stomp of New Ice Age, where a post-apocalyptic vision of extreme conditions is recounted over walls of discordant guitars. Badwan, possessed simultaneously by the spirits of Mark E Smith and Brett Anderson, warns of “A new ice age, closer day by day/We’ll freeze when ice wings are swooping down” and any initial thoughts of chatty CGI mammoths are soon forgotten.
So far, so effortlessly glacial. Things do begin to thaw out a little with the acid rock dribblings of I Only Think of You and I Can’t Control Myself. Placed side by side, both tracks create a slightly sludgy section towards the end of the album. Things do end on a high note though with the panoramic groove of Sea Within A Sea with its intense bursts of guitar that lead into an ambient arpeggio.
Primary Colours is a finely crafted album by a band who have finally managed to strike a balance between style and substance.
Not since the Beastie Boys released Pauls Boutique in 1989 has a musical reinvention been not only so unexpected but so very welcome. On Primary Colours there is little trace of the flailing garage-shlock of The Horrors debut Strange House. This time around they boldly take the alternative indie of the Psychedelic Furs and mix it with Th’ Faith Healers cyclic avant-garde lurch. Mirror’s Image begins the proceedings with its Closer-era Joy Division keyboards and reverberating passages of warped guitar that go on to underpin the rest of the album and over these edgy textures Faris Badwan tells of romantic encounters and snarls his kitchen sink dramas. The title track is an Eno-flavoured college rock gem that could sit quite happily on the soundtrack to any John Hughes film from the 1980s. Despite the streamlining it is clear that the band still have bite, as evidenced by the thrilling Goth-stomp of New Ice Age, where a post-apocalyptic vision of extreme conditions is recounted over walls of discordant guitars. Badwan, possessed simultaneously by the spirits of Mark E Smith and Brett Anderson, warns of “A new ice age, closer day by day/We’ll freeze when ice wings are swooping down” and any initial thoughts of chatty CGI mammoths are soon forgotten.
So far, so effortlessly glacial. Things do begin to thaw out a little with the acid rock dribblings of I Only Think of You and I Can’t Control Myself. Placed side by side, both tracks create a slightly sludgy section towards the end of the album. Things do end on a high note though with the panoramic groove of Sea Within A Sea with its intense bursts of guitar that lead into an ambient arpeggio.
Primary Colours is a finely crafted album by a band who have finally managed to strike a balance between style and substance.