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Editors 'The Back Room'
Let’s clear something up from the off, just to avoid any confusion: Editors do not sound like Joy Division. By virtue of a baritone voice and a shared aesthetic dealing with love, loss, disease and despair, singer guitarist Tom Smith has invited countless comparisons with the late Ian Curtis but unlike the Mancunian quartet, Editors sound is less starkly mechanoid and industrial, less anguished and wrapped in a more organic milieu that offers glimpses of redemption and hope.
Indeed, as opening track ‘Lights’ indicates, Editors doff their collective cap to the shimmering chimes of early Echo & The Bunnymen and U2 with a healthy dose of 80s nearly-rans The Sound chucked in for good measure. But this isn’t to suggest that Editors don’t have their own sound. Unlike, say, The Departure, Editors aren’t plundering the past in a desperate attempt to hitch a ride on the retro-bandwagon; no, this is troubled music to soundtrack our troubled times, music that looks to the past for inspiration and builds upon its foundations. As Smith intones during ‘Blood’, “Blood runs through our veins / That’s where our similarity ends.”
Editors have mastered the art of melody and, coupled with a sense of dynamics, atmospherics and drama, have created a thing of tormented beauty. ‘All Sparks’, the album’s highlight, is propelled by guitarist Chris Urbanowicz’s ringing arpeggios and Ed Lay’s rolling tom-toms while Russell Leetch’s bass rumbles ominously underneath to add gravitas to Smith’s accusatory opening line of “You’re answering questions that have not yet been asked.” It’s simultaneously liberating and oppressive, a jarring of emotions that demands your full attention.
It’s impossible not be gripped by what’s on offer. ‘Open Your Arms’ transcends its teasing, minimalist, almost meagre origins as it gradually builds into a maelstrom of soaring, squalling guitars as Smith, as much in defiance as celebration, repeats the mantra, “Open your arms and welcome” as it offers an escape from solace and isolation.
Editors don’t revel in the culture of dejection and confusion; they confront it head on, that through it all, you’re not alone, there are others like you, too. Just reach out and touch and through the mire there’ll be some kind of way out.
As well as producing one of the year’s more stunning debut albums, Editors have taken the first significant step out of the gloom of ‘The Back Room’ and into the light of what should prove to be a long and enduring journey.
Editors 'The Back Room' (Kitchenware) Released July 25 2005.
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