The Horrors – Skying (XL)
4/5
There’s no doubt upon first hearing of The Horrors’ new LP that these boys have yet again taken a different route. Skying’s opening track, ‘Changing The Rain’, sets the tone of an easy-going haze that continues throughout this farewell to the psycho-rock sound of their previous offerings.
Skying has soaked up the resurgence of shoegaze that has dominated much of the indie scene for the last few years like an arid sponge, and there are a very evident handful of influences throughout the album. However, third track, ‘I Can See Through You’ has a far more eighties feel – all synthesized emotion and none of the morbid tones we’re used to.
‘Endless Blue’ is perhaps the strongest offering from Faris and co thus far: you’d be hard-pushed to identify it as The Horrors at all, if you didn’t know already. Sounding straight out of 1993, the album’s fourth track is all the catchy guitar riffing you could ask for, and a sign of good things to come.
This is very much a recurrent theme through to ‘Still Life’, the first single of the LP, which slows the record down into a more booming Simple Minds kind of feel. ‘Wild Eyed’ follows – an equally breathy interlude to the album that is quickly forgotten with the raging synth of ‘Moving Further Away’.
Skying reaches its riotous end with its very own Northern Rock homage, ‘Oceans Burning’; a droning and melancholy conclusion, and a fine finish to what is a pleasing turn for everybody’s – or maybe just a few people’s - favourite goth rockers.
Artists in this article: The Horrors
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