Bookended with a sombre piece of spoken word and the celestial chimes of a synth choir, you could be forgiven for mistaking Editors’ third outing as dreary affair. Certainly, the explosive rock fodder takes a while to make its presence felt. But never fear – it’s there alright. It’s just that you have to give it time to sink in.
In fact, a great deal of this album delivers. The electro-adorned ‘You Don’t Know Love’ is an accusatory high point while groggy single ‘Papillion’ is powerful, right down to its tippy toes. Whatever In This Light And On This Evening is a soundtrack to, it’s something very, very sinister (and Vinnie Jones is probably involved).
Others tracks are more sedated, a case in point being the ironically-named ‘The Big Exit’ and funereal closer ‘Walk The Fleet Road’. The sparingly featured lyrics are cleverly placed and always quotable (‘Got to get friends in high places/ Hide behind their plastic faces’, ‘Girl, I think it’s time to leave/ Like a thief on Christmas Eve’) and the electronics come thick and retro, like a particularly irked New Order.
‘Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool’ is “the best pop song Editors have ever written”, according to frontman Tom Smith. If it’s me you’re asking, it’s no ‘Munich’. That said, it has a jerky charm that, in the right frame of mind, can be quite moving. A good record in any light it is then...