Editors are four Goths from Birmingham. Maybe not Goths in the modern sense of the word, but Goths in the old school sense. Think 80s. Think Joy Division. Think The Cure. They make music not unlike Interpol with a very British twist. Although they may not be as arty and as "hip" as their American counterparts, but they are a very good band and this is a very good album.
Opener "Lights" sets the tone perfectly. No intro, just Tom's voice and a guitar directly. It sounds very dark but strangely uplifting, a lot like the rest of the album. There's some excellent guitar playing in this one, piling on the reverb like whipped cream... It's a great opener showing off all of Editors' skills in one song.
"Munich" is a very dark song which gets better every time you listen to it. Part U2, part Interpol and a lot of Editors' unique musicianship it combines some furious guitar and bass work with dark lyrics like "people are fragile things you should know by now/you speak when you're spoken to." One of my favourite tracks on the album.
Another one of my favourites is the next track, "Blood." It has and infectious Edge - like riff and a great bassline with some synth squelches that top off the whole track nicely. The lyrics again are dark and cryptic: "cover your lies up with another promise." If it wasn't so dark, it would be number one.
"All Sparks" is depressing, yet very uplifting at the same time. It has the same dark verse/big chorus structure that the rest of the album has but it has another thing that I can't describe, something else. The like "all sparks will burn out in the end" is repeated throughout the song along with the guitar riff. It's a great song and I can imagine lots of people singing along to it in a stadium.
You probably will have heard "Bullets" before. If you haven't you should've. It has a riff that reminds me of Doves, and there are some strang stuttering vocals in the chorus that give it an odd, distorted feel which strangely goes with everything else. It's a fine track and probably Editors' most played single.
Watch out for this band - they've got the dark of Interpol, the tunes of Doves and a lot of their own great stuff. They WILL be huge, even if they do get a little samey sometimes. But doesn't everyone?
