This is one of my favorite albums. I love Editors, they are amazing live and now I understand what they were trying to on In This Light … and the Joy Division infleunces are  just adding more and more to thier stock.

I have a long connection with Editors, they were the first band that I embraced when growing out of the poppy-punk stuff Ataris, Fall Out Boy, All American Rejects and co were churning out and helped me to re-invent myself a little when coming out of a difficult phase.

I remember buying thier first album and Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (Arctic Monkeys) at the same time and being very excited that British rock was starting to re-assert itself. I have a vivid memory of buying those albums and then going to meet a friend of mine in Rileys to play some pool and waste some more time before going back to a house full of people I’m not sure I wanted to spend time with and hiding in my room and just listening to those two albums over and over again.

Music has an uncanny ability to take you back to places in your life. It genuinely can take you back to an exact moment in time and open some very old feelings you’d forgotten were there. Recently I went to see a local covers band and watched in amazment as first my girlfirend and then a friend broke down in tears as Stop Crying Your Heart Out and Run rang out respectively. The Back Room has a similar effect on me, it reminds me of playing a computer game in my own room with a feeling a massive sense of relief knowing that I was back home.

For me this was the moment that the mid-2000′s indie band revial really took off. I went to a string of concerts, brought a stupid amount of albums and my love affair with British guitar music was re-ignited. Editors and Arctic Monkeys wer just the start for me, the likes of Bloc Party, Kasier Chiefs, Athlete and Futureheads started filling my music collection.

I saw Editors in Plymouth Pavilions and Exeter University on both the Back Room  and An End Has A Start tours. I can’t wait to see them in concert again. They are awesome. The drummer is like a man possessed and the guitar just echos around the room.

Everytime I hear this album, I just get such a reminder of how GOOD this band are live. The songs all sound like epic anthems.

A lot of reviews I have read suggest that this is waeker of the two albums. I disagree. Both are really good albums and the more you listen to them, the more you releasie just how different they are to most of British bands around at the time. There is nothing similar to them around at the moment – Only White Lies have make something good enough to make it to radio play lists.

I honestly think there isn’t a bad track on this album. The opening two tracks Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors and the title track are two song that time and time again end up playlists and cds. The Racing Rats, Bones and Escape The Nest are some of my favorite guitar rifts from modern bands (although it does take some to beat Bloc Party’s Hunting For Witches!)

Slower tracks such as Weight of the World and Well Worn Hand really help balance out the album and give it some depth. For me the sign of a good album is one where the faster, more enegetic ‘singles’ are countered with slow tracks that hold up in thier own right. Alot of albums have slower tracks towards the later tracks that are highly skippable, the slower songs here almost allow you to catch up with what has gone before.

A special track for me the the beautiful Push Your Head Towards The Sun. It’s

For me this falls into the bracket of ‘driving cd’. I can happily turn up the radio a bit too high, drive down the motorway and happily sing along, giving it all the emotion a good driving CD deserves.

I’m really excited to hear that Editors have gone back into the studio and over 2011 will be recording thier forth album wih producer Flood  who worked with Glasvegas on thier recent release “Euphoric Heartbreak” and given how good that album is I just can’t wait! 

Key Track: Racing Rats

This entry was posted in The Music Project and tagged 00's, British, Editors, Heard Before, Post-Punk Revival. Bookmark the permalink.