the horrors - classic or dud

Maybe the album will just be them reinterpreting the whole of the last Portishead album in a Krautrock style.

Actually that would be kind of brilliant.

This is still so epic...someone's suggested The Chameleons (and to be more precise "Second Skin") as a reference point...he isn't too far wide of the mark, I guess.

take that back please

It's not my observation! I'm just reporting it, throwing it out there. Something about the backing synth right at the end, I suppose, and the fact it changes tack halfway thru

So, OK, this is way more interesting than I imagined The Horrors were capable of being, but even so, why the fucking god awful goth singing? Can no one groove AND have fun instead of being a doomy cunt?

Oh. SFA can. Class dismissed.

Interestingly, it's this vs. "Cardiff In The Sun" for my song of the year thus far, and they're both 8-minute Kraut-outs, the one all doomy, synthy and redemptive, the other all light, airy and utterly blissful

As for the vocals, you may have a point re: being perhaps a bit TOO wrapped up in their own dourness, but I think the vocal style works WITH the musical narrative, especially those buried out-of-tune vocals in the second half...they go from dour to completely lost, completely overwhelmed by sound...I think it works really nicely there.

Damo Suzuki didn't sound like a doomy cunt.

yeah but you gotta admit the vocal slight return amidst the synth storm is really well-executed

The 80s electro keyboard in Sea Within A Sea is totally ace but I'm not mega thrilled by the rest of the album on initial listen

I like it, especially the second part. Though I liked the first album too, it was good fun.

Oh, so you mean they've hit us with the trump card early on and they're kinda hoping the rest surfs on its wake?

Damn sweet trump card mind.

'Who Can Say' is great, complete with po-faced spoken section!

Definitely hearing The Rip in Sea Within A Sea. And plenty of Psychedelic Furs and Chameleons in the rest of the albu,/

i like 'primary colours', nothing groundbreakingly original but ive been enjoying listening to it

http://www.nme.com/layout/magImage.php

I am listening to this album again now. I really want to like it more than I do! It does sound quite a lot like Loop, albeit if they'd never listened to any heavy rock records

This album is sounding pretty great actually, but the 'ZOMG they have ripped up the rulebook and thrown it out of the window!' hype is going to be insufferable. As a patchwork of very obvious influences though it's enjoyable enough.

Despite being slavishly derivative, I did quite like their first EP. Full first album wasn't bad, but can't remember the last time I played it.

Citation from the DiS review: "The Horrors have done the one thing no other hyped to the heavens British guitar band has been able to do in the past ten years; they’ve given birth to a sophomore album that drastically improves upon its predecessor"

Discuss. But perhaps they're right.

Interesting. Hard to think of exceptions right now. I was underwhelmed by their first album. First listen of the new one was entertaining, if just for the spot-the-unexpected-influence game. Sounds like Geoff Barrow had some fun injecting some inspiration. Still seems a bit awkward and silly to me, which means it's probably going to be a huge mega-seller. It's fun, maybe I'll enjoy repeated listens, we'll see.

Slavering review: http://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/the-horrors-primary-colours

Some talk about the new album here:

New album by the Horrors out today....

General consensus: pretty interesting.

I missed that revive from a month ago. Liked that video a lot better than what I had heard from the previous album. A pretty faceless take on Can like others were sayin, but surprisingly enjoyable. But I guess if I wanted Can w/o Damo Suzuki there are actual Can albums w/o Damo Suzuki...

I can't really get behind the implication that it's inherently more musically... distinguished to do an album that's a bite of Can and Loop or whatever than one that's a bite of The Cramps and The Birthday Party or whatever. Like all of those are more or less canonically esteemed bands in equal measure, y'know?

Exactly.

I agree, but it's no fun to listen to repeated remakes of Cramps records (or for that matter Can, or whoever). Even if they've taken off some equally derivative sources as from their first record, they've done so in a pretty interesting way I think.

Or to put it another way the fact that they are biting krautrock and drone rather than just garage rock shows that they want to develop.

This album is gash. It only got to 25 so hopefully they'll get dropped again.

i liked the single that sampled 'mother sky'. it was good.

I'd be really, really curious to hear the reactions to this album had it come from some no-names with no previous history.

I haven't felt the urge to go back to this album. I have enough records that sound a bit like this, I really don't need another one, especially with shitey goth vocals all over it.

I can't really get behind the implication that it's inherently more musically... distinguished to do an album that's a bite of Can and Loop or whatever than one that's a bite of The Cramps and The Birthday Party or whatever. Like all of those are more or less canonically esteemed bands in equal measure, y'know?

― display mane (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, May 13, 2009 1:33 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

That's pretty OTM. So they've done a better job aping Can than they did the Cramps. Big deal.

hang on, the only place where they ape Can on this record is on the first third of one song

i mean, MBV and Spiritualized have much more of a case in the legal department imo

I have only heard this one song lol.

it doesn't sound much like can except for the beat tbh

LIKE KANYE

It's a really good song, is what people are ignoring :P

(And the fact is, the best things about it have nothing to do with Can, and a helluva lot to do with uh er Portishead lolz)

So they've done a better job aping Can than they did the Cramps. Big deal.

I'm not even sure they have done a better job - both albums come off to me as well-intentioned but less than the sum of their parts. (And yeah I don't think it's a *flagrant* rip of any of these people but my point is it's all record collection rock or music critic rock or whatever you call it.)

it's all record collection rock or music critic rock or whatever you call it.

sometimes this stuff is good though, idk, im not prescriptive. it's usually music critics/blogtards who have a problem with 'music critic rock' n'est ce pas.

Sea Within A Sea is immense but I don't really feel any compulsion to listen to any of the other tracks to see what they are like.

The Can rip in particular was pretty much alarms goin off I thought, but all that aside I think the best I say is...it's nice...I wouldn't say it sucks. I just can not muster any enthusiasm for these dudes.

NB I'm still butthurt that everyone pays attention to these dudes when there was already a better Horrors.

sometimes this stuff is good though, idk, im not prescriptive. it's usually music critics/blogtards who have a problem with 'music critic rock' n'est ce pas.

Oh me too, some of my favourite bands etc etc - just sayin is all

also bear in mind that this is exactly the type of band i wouldn't have given the time of day to until i heard the new music with my own ears

like i said on the other thread, "i only think of you" and "new ice age" are stormers, up there with "sea within a sea"

I have listened to this album at least 20 times in the last week...

give or take

new record sounds like the stone roses with a hangover. i don't think the world is quite ready for a baggy shoegaze revival.

I've not heard the whole album but someone sent me the opening track and, aside from some vaguely MBV guitar oscillation it's just goth, isn't it? Doomy vocals and nasty snare sound. But didn't MBV come from a nasty goth background? The Stone Roses certainly did, following on from what horses said above.

But didn't MBV come from a nasty goth background?

Not exactly?

the stone roses with a hangover

bahahahaha

I hadnt checked them out since "Primary Colours", which I really liked a the time. The new stuff sounds nice, refers to a lot of my personal hall-of-famers and yet it all sounds so slight. A weird feeling that despite the fact that I *should* like this, it just seems very pointless

classic hair