One of the best things about making mixes based on a theme is discovering songs in your own collection. In making my Halloween mix, I came across this promo mp3 from the Horrors second album, Primary Colours, which was released in May. If you went only by a 30-second sample, you might dismiss it as a rip-off of Echo and the Bunnymen–the same guitar-driven, muddy shoegaze and deep-voiced vocals. But “Sea Within a Sea” has a seven-minute arc, and things happen in that time that overcome that first impression. At about the 4-minute mark, it turns unexpectedly into a rippling likeness of “The Rip”–not surprising when you find out that Portishead’s Geoff Barrow produced the album.
Lots of black eyeliner and fluffy hairdos point to a Goth influence, but the Horrors are good enough not be pinned down all that easily. Besides the Bunnymen, they sound a bit like the Editors, mostly due to amazingly tall vocalist Faris Badwan, if the Editors were trying to sound like the Doors.
The album as a whole turns out to be a pleasant surprise, with a big-hearted sound and strong songs that do not take predictable turns. “Do You Remember,” “Who Can Say,” and “I Only Think of You,” another long track with strangely off-key backing accompaniment, as well as the album’s title song, are stand-outs, and “Sea Within a Sea” as the last track winds the whole thing up magnificently.
The Horrors - Sea Within a Sea from Primary Colours (2009)
MySpace | Website | Label: Beggars Group
Buy at Beggars Group, Amazon, Juno Records
- alt-gramma (371)
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- Uncle T (7)
Great review. I’m enjoying Primary Colours very much too. And Sea within a Sea really does end the album on a high note. Cheers, Nigel
November 25th, 2009 at 1:25 pm