THE HORRORS – PRIMARY COLOURS

I am not sure why The Horrors would chose a title for their new album already used by Ry Cooder and heavily identified with a movie about Bill Clinton’s pre-Presidential years. Particularly when said album represents a significant new development for a band hailed as “the future of British rock”. Primary Colours is both a step froward for The Horrors and a large nod backwards. Taking their big-hair and sharp features, washing their distorted guitars and deep, dark English baritone vocals with layers of reverb, The Horrors emerge somewhere between The Damned and My Bloody Valentine at an Interpol gig. When they hold their pop roots tightest – Three Decades, Who Can Say – they succeed the most, suggesting that for all their hopes and post-punk aspirations this is where their heart lies. The epic closer Sea Within A Sea is the album’s crowning glory, a stunning epic of minimalism, 8 minutes of restraint and joyful release. Worth the wait alone. Somehow The Horrors have found the cross-roads where shoe gaze meets goth meets post-post-punk. I hope it didn’t cost them their soul.

*** 1/2