Editors: The Weight Of Your Love

This is the first Editors’ album since the departure last year of founding guitarist Chris Urbanowicz. I have to confess, when I first heard Tom Smith’s mob, on their 2005 debut The Back Room, I had them pegged as Joy Division worshippers without anything new to say, with a shelf life of two albums max. I was wrong. While fellow miserablists like Interpol have crumbled in the face of success, Smith & Co. are still growing musically.
Album opener and title-track of sorts, ‘The Weight’ is a statement of intent, a tour de force of pounding drums, menacing guitars and Ennio Morricone-style spaghetti western flourishes, allied to Tom Smith’s compelling vocals, as he describes a love so complete it’s almost unhealthy: “Every day I pray that I’m the first to go, without you I’d be lost”. The snarling bass of ‘Sugar’ contrasts with its sweet guitar licks and the twirly Indian-esque melodies all over the middle-eight, which somehow add up to a bruising listen, complete with memorable refrain, “It breaks my heart to love you”. A pitch perfect opening salvo is completed by insistent lead single ‘A Ton Of Love’.
‘What Is This Thing Called Love?’ sounds like Editors’ pitch for stadium tours, Smith’s weird falsetto coming on like a downbeat Chris Martin. Get past the syrupy arrangement, however, and it’s a brutally honest appraisal of the end of a relationship, which could be the cross-over hit they’ve been praying for.
‘The Phone Book’ nods towards a more American sound, right down to the countrified warble of the guitar solo. Similarly, ‘Two Hearted Spider’ is like a slowed down hybrid of ‘Shiny Happy People’ and ‘All Sparks’, while the gorgeous ‘Nothing’ is another big string-soaked dose of melancholia, which Smith delivers with all the drama you’d expect.
With big, brooding songs about love, loss and obsession, this is thematically and tonally a descendant of Depeche Mode circa Songs Of Faith And Devotion as much as Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures. The Weight Of Your Love is Editors at their very best.

Key Track: 'Sugar'