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Unsung Forum » The Horrors new LP |
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Saint Derek 108 posts |
May 09, 2009, 09:46
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Very impressive, I didn't see that one coming! They've gone a bit Neu.
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anthonyqkiernan 7087 posts |
May 09, 2009, 11:42
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Yeah, this years prize for most unexpected reinvention goes to...
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riotmaster 1563 posts |
May 09, 2009, 12:34
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Its pretty nifty
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Jasonaparkes 876 posts |
May 09, 2009, 15:44
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I was aware of another band called The Horrors...I think on In the Red-records? Not much attention was deserved for their prior material - always compared to The Birthday Party, but really more Daisy Chainsaw. I read the gushing reviews and bought the record. I wanted to be blown away. I was not and have sold my copy already... The two main influences appear to be shoegazing and Krautrock - which isn't very original. Fucking everyone is using those references these days...the only more tired reference point would be Post-Punk (and one track about halfway through sounds a bit Wire, or Menswe@r). Let's consider bands already citing Shields/MBV/Shoegazing these days - Ladytron, Black Cab, Jeniferever, Ambulance Ltd, Secret Machines, School of Seven Bells, the Jonestown, Mono, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Fennesz, Joy Zipper, Asobi Seksu, A Place to Bury Strangers, Darker My Love, Wolves in the Throne Room, Nadja etc. & Krautrock is becoming a tired reference point - how many of the many acts citing it are doing more than adding a Can-groove or the Motorik beat? Of course there are some fine acts who are citing Neu! et al, but when The Horrors, on a shite major label/directionless/associated with Peaches Geldof, jump on a bandwagon after Death Cab for Cutie, Oasis, and Kasabian, you have to worry. As with the mainly chuff Brand Neu! compilation, there is a suspicion that some of these bands are cool by association with Rother, Dinger et al. ...so what are The Horrors bringing to the show that's new? There aren't any songs. Some of it sounds like The Psychedelic Furs vocally, but we know the reference point is more likely to be Interpol. The supposedly post-Shields guitar-exploration sounds like Big Country's bag-pipe sound on about the 3rd track. The lyrics - printed on the sleeve for reasons that confound - are just terrible and don't need to be there. The worst problem is the singer sounding like an annoying take on Brett Anderson - I never thought Suede and shoegazing/Krautrock went together. Though the band who didn't have any songs they reminded me of the most were Strangelove. Maybe it'll grow on me and I've been the victim of over-enthuasistic music journalism, or worse, music journalism that is merely rewriting the accompanying press release.... Listening to that album several times I just thought of Kevin Rowland's immortal line, "You must be fucking joking!"
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riotmaster 1563 posts |
May 09, 2009, 16:12
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why does it need to be 'new' ?
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Hunter T Wolfe 1709 posts |
May 09, 2009, 19:32
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I just listened to it for the first time and I thought it was great. I also thought that the krautrock influence on the "single" Sea Within A Sea proved to be a red herring- I didn't think the rest of it was krauty at all. It's very MBV and shoegaze, and very 80s goth and post-punk psychedelia. It's like Britpop never happened, and this is the overground art school indie LP that picks up where we left off in about 1991, combining the influences of the previous decade and a half, but without sounding especially derivative. I don't hear the Suede thing at all. Chameleons, maybe. I think there are some great "Songs" -not that classic songwriting is always the criteria, but the title track, for one, is a very well-constructed pop song. The guitar sound owes a lot to Kevin Shields, indeed, but as you note they also take it to other places. Good. I should say that I've been a fan of The Horrors from day one, anyway. For their annoyance value, for daring to dress up like goth-punk dandies in an era of balding be-stubbled indie bands in fleeces, for making a great punky racket which woke you up coming out of daytime radio rather than lulling you further into worker drone stupor, and then debut album Strange House was genuinely great too, with more than one experimental curveball among the thrash hits. So I've always had faith in em. So what if there's a wider shoegaze / shitgaze scene going on- the more the merrier I say, and there's a million miles of difference between, say, The Horrors, Jenniferever and A Place To Bury Strangers, anyway.
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Jasonaparkes 876 posts |
May 09, 2009, 22:45
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OK, they're great for having a sound that sounds exactly like and does not advance on certain records of yore. Let's have an Unsung review for Kingdom Come... I have no problem with bands tapping into these influences - but it's pretty dull when they just imitate them...and that's it. The Horrors' record is a joke and their bold new sound is PR and music hype - I think if you want to sound like Neu! or Slowdive or whatever, you could at least try and advance on that sound. They don't...just an opinion though...
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Jasonaparkes 876 posts |
May 09, 2009, 22:50
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My only point about the shoegaze references and acts sounding like them applies to the Krautrock references here - fucking everyone is doing them. Some of the acts making these references are managing to make something new - School of Seven Bells were very interesting live. The Horrors, after about 14 people purchased their debut, were looking for the cliche that is the new sound...just at the point loads of other acts start making these references. So (1) it's pretty dull they're on a reference bandwagon, especially after Kasabian and Death Cab for Cutie (2) & a shame that when they make the generic references they don't make much of them. A failure to transcend these influences - that KD motorik beat is all over the record! It seems fair to also point out that (3) The songs suck. Brett Anderson did have a whiff of Peter Murphy/the more hysterical Devoto - he was the vocalist I thought of the most, apart from the bloke from Interpol on a couple. It's an opinion and I'll stick with Don't Believe the Hype...
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riotmaster 1563 posts |
May 10, 2009, 00:30
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Nah
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Hunter T Wolfe 1709 posts |
May 10, 2009, 11:12
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I disagree, Jason. As you say, it's just an opinion, and I'm usually in agreement with many of your musical judgements here and elsewhere, but in this case sir I feel that you're talking through your hat. You seem to have more issues with the hype in the press than the record itself, which is fair enough, but something I've managed to remain largely unaffected by through the cunning trick of not reading it. Don't assume that because they're young and well dressed they must be bandwagon jumpers who weren't into Joy Division or Neu before whenever the accepted date is, and must've got into them through Interpol or Kasabian or something. That's pure unwarranted snobbery and extremely patronising to boot. I really don't see this huge krautrock influence though, except on that one track that nicks the bassline from 'Mother Sky.' But that apparently is what the press has labelled them with. On their first album everyone said they were a goth band, based on their haircuts, when the biggest influence was patently The Sonics and their ilk- it was a garage rock album- now, 'Primary Colours' sounds deeply goth to me, but no, the official line is that it's their krautrock record. It's all opinion. I think they write good songs and transcend their influences, you don't. On a final note, I see Kevin Shields has invited them to play the MBV-curated ATP- a seal of approval he doesn't seem to have bestowed on any of the other bands around right now who are under his influence.
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