The Horrors' fifth studio outing finds the band furthering their sonic evolution of polished, groove-driven arena-rock.
The Horrors/ V
When British quintet The Horrors appeared on the indie music scene a decade ago, not many people wanted to take these gothic hipsters seriously. Dressed in their monochromatic getup, they were heavily influenced by the sound of 1960s garage-punk bands such as The Sonics, The Monks and Screaming Lord Sutch. While highlighting their fondness of the genre, their debut album, 2007's Strange House, had painted them as being somewhat derivative. The Horrors, together with all their gimmicks, weren't expected to last that long.
But then, to everyone's horror (sorry), the Faris Badwan-fronted five-piece returned with their sophomore LP, Primary Colours. Having ditched the scrappy garage sound, they embraced the sort of shimmering, stadium-ready shoegaze-inflicted krautrock à la The Cure, My Bloody Valentine, Depeche Mode and Tangerine Dream. The band's third and fourth records, 2011's Skying and 2014's Luminous, saw them continuing in that vein, all the while producing a string of solid gems including Still Life, I Can See Through You, Changing the Rain, So Now You Know and I See You.
A decade has passed since the band's inception, and here they are -- still vaguely resembling post-millennial The Cure, and still going strong with the release of their latest offering, V. Produced by prolific Grammy Awards winner Paul Epworth (Bloc Party, Coldplay, John Legend, Maroon 5, Adele), the album marks the band's bid to "get nasty" and "make something that sounded quite horrible and quite unsettling again" according to bassist Rhys Webb.
The thing is, if that's what he truly wanted, we wouldn't see Epworth behind the back of the soundboard. V was meant to sound massive and accessible, not "nasty", "horrible" nor "unsettling". Take the six-minute swaggering opener, Hologram, which is bolstered by scintillating synths and sprawling melodies reminiscent of Aussie act Jagwar Ma. "Are we hologram?/Are we vision?" Badwan muses in his disenchanted drone.
Press Enter to Exit and Machine recall the languid groove of The Stone Roses' Ian Brown. Ghost offers up a slice of brooding post-rock whereas Gathering and It's a Good Life fill in the record's quota for balladry.
Everything up to this point boils down to the final number, Something To Remember Me By, a near seven-minute closer built around a glittering, euphoric synth line. "I've gone too far this time/But chances come and go," sings Badwan. "Now, all that's left behind/Something to remember me by/Oh, the fear, the slow divide/Something to remember me by." The track is among one of the best to emerge in the band's 10 year-long career.
With V, The Horrors have demonstrated the kind of unexpected growth and maturity no one would have expected from a bunch of shaggy-haired goth kids who got their start by playing garage-punk. They've proven that with the right mindset (and the right producer), a solid, fully realised album is indeed possible.
THE PLAYLIST
Weezer/ Weekend Woman
Rivers Cuomo and company get cute on their latest offering, Weekend Woman, which blends the jangly, almost Christmas-like '60s pop with scruffy '90s indie rock to great effect. As for the message, it's the oft-visited theme of pining after one's love interest according to the days of the week ("We fell in love on a Sunday/By Monday morning I drifted away/All I want is to see her/All I want is to reach my weekend woman").
Promiseland/ Take Down The House
"Promiseland is your imaginary friend come to life, uncontrollable like Pan's shadow … but with a heart of napalm," goes the description for Australian-born, New York-based artist Johann Rashid who goes by the moniker Promiseland. Signed to The Strokes singer Julian Casablancas' Cult Records label, his raging debut single, Take Down the House, finds him spewing a hectic sonic lash-out, combining the rigid techno rhythm with elements of post-punk and industrial rock. "Take down the house!/Take down everything!" he yelps, unleashing the kind of strobe-lit, disco pandemonium in the process.
Ibeyi/ I Wanna Be Like You
I Wanna Be Like You is the third single taken from French-Cuban twins Naomi and Lisa-Kainde Diaz's sophomore record under Ibeyi. A follow-up to the powerful lead cut Deathless (featuring Kamasi Washington on sax) and Spanish-language Me Voy, the sprightly track tells the story from the perspective of Lisa-Kainde, who penned the lyrics for her twin. "Look at you now/So wild and free/Watching you move/Why can't that be me?" she sings over finger snaps and offbeat percussion. The song also alludes to River from their debut album, which is pretty neat ("Come to your river/I will come to your river" vs "Take me to the river/Help me find the sun."
Rich Chigga/ Chaos
Well, look who's just turned 18. It's rising Indonesian comedian/rapper Rich Chigga. Here, he's celebrating the occasion in a big way with a new single, Chaos. "Yeah, happy birthday to me/I'm 18 now/And women can legally have sex with me," he announces, full of swagger, in the intro. He then continues to lay down braggadocio bars, spanning his newfound stardom ("You can't get rid of me/I ain't going nowhere/And I'm always multiplying like I always fornicate … Used to hate the camera, now your boy's a natural") and living large ("I'll be riding right down Melrose with a thickie main, bro").
Shopping/ The Hype
Formed in 2012, London trio Shopping make grooving art-rock that harkens back to the spirit of punk-inspired electropop acts like Bikini Kill, Le Tigre and Gossip. Their latest cut, The Hype, marks the band's first new music since their 2015's LP Why Choose, and brims with noodling guitar lines, funky bass and disco drums. Lyrically, it's about a wake-up call to action to question everything around you. "Last chance!" band members Rachel Aggs, Billy Easter and Andrew Milk shout in unison. Like most of their previous releases, this one is extremely danceable.
