They’d made streams available of this track ‘So Now You Know’ – but here is the full video in all its glory. Really rather upbeat and -well- lovely. It may or may not have been shot with the American market in mind, but don’t let your cynicism get in the way of enjoying it.
This has been described as the most anticipated album of 2014 by the NME. I don’t know that that necessarily applies to me (I’m more excited about the forthcoming albums from The Cure and Morrissey – but then I’m 37 not 17, so that may be more than just a little bit significant).
I still blush to recall that I wrote The Horrors off when I first heard them. Still, eight years on they are still here, and about to release their long-awaited fourth album, Luminous.
Due to hit the shops at the beginning of May, it was said that the latest Horrors album would have more of an electronic feel than previous releases. On the basis of the two tracks that they’ve made available to stream (see below) that’s quite true, but by the same token, they certainly still sound like the Horrors, and there’s lots of the gloriously noisy psychedelia on display that made people fall for them in the first place.
Really enjoying both of these tracks and hoping that it keeps the magic up over the course of the entire album…
The full tracklisting for Luminous is as follows:
Chasing Shadows
First Day Of Spring
So Now You Know
In and Out Of Sight
Jealous Sun
Falling Star
I See You
Change Your Mind
Mine and Yours
Sleepwalk
Just a couple of months after Farris’ side-project Cat’s Eyes, The Horrors return with their third album, Skying.
It will be released on XL on July 11 (July 26 if you are reading this in the US). The first single will be the track ‘Still Life’ which shows that they have started experimenting with brass and yet continuing to hold onto the shoegazing sound. This sounds nothing like ‘Sheena Is A Parasite.’ That was five years ago, mind you…
The tracklisting for the album is as follows:
‘Changing the Rain’
‘You Said’
‘I Can See Through You’
‘Endless Blue’
‘Dive In’
‘Still Life’
‘Wild Eyed’
‘Moving Further Away’
‘Monica Gems’
‘Oceans Burning’
Check out ‘Still Life’ and let me know what you think…
There can’t be many acts whose first gig has been a performance at the Vatican.
But that’s exactly what happened back in December, when Horrors mainman Faris Badwan teamed up with Canadian Soprano Rachel Zeffira. This is the performance, which may very well be one of the most lovely things I have ever posted here. It reminds me of Philip Glass a bit, too…
This is their cover of Grinderman’s ‘When My Baby Comes.’
As you’re probably aware if you have much interest in guitar music and/or the UK indie scene, both the Manic Street Preachers and The Horrors have recently released new albums. The Horrors’ sophomore release Primary Colours has already made the UK Top 30 albums and will no doubt do very well at the end of the year in the end of year polls. Deservedly so. The Manic Street Preachers have just released their ninth album, Journal For Plague Lovers, which is based on lyrics written by the band’s guitarist Richey Edwards, who disappeared in 1995.
So there seems to be a bit of mutual admiration going on -which is fair enough, after all, they’re both great bands after all. The Manics have covered The Horrors’ song ‘Vision Blurred’ (a non-album track, in case you were racking your brains!) and The Horrors have remixed the Manics’ album track ‘Doors Clsoing Slowly.’ Neither of these tracks have been commercially released, at least so far as I can tell, but were originally made available by the NME website.
So give these a listen, and see what you think. And when I’ve had chance to get my hands on the Manics album, I’ll post a review here.
umm, this is a bit embarassing, like, but I think I owe you an apology.
See, three years ago, when you came along with the ‘Sheena Is A Parasite’ single, I wrote you off as a bunch of Cramps copyists. In London at the Rough Trade store, I told the man in the shop I thought so, too. Maybe it was jealousy on my part. Hell, I hate it when people keep comparing Aberfeldy to Belle and Sebastian.
Over the course of a couple of singles ‘Count In Fives’ and ‘Gloves’ I started to change my mind, though I haven’t bought your first album Strange House yet. I will, though. Then this year, the word started to circulate that your second album was a complete quantum leap forward, and that you’d gone shoegazing.
Well, people can say what they like, because I’m blown away by your sophomore album. Yes it evokes Loveless, and that’s a good thing. It evokes so much good music, and yet I realise you’ve put your own spin on it. There are so many excellent tracks on this album, which I’ve played twice today already. The video for ‘Who Can say’ reminds me of many of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ videos, and how they draw on that final scene of Wings of Desire (have you ever seen that film?!) And the final track ‘Sea Within a Sea’ is one of the tracks of the year. It’s a perfect finish to an excellent album, as good a final track as ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ or ‘Hymn To The Big Wheel’ or ‘Shoot Speed Kill Light.’
Look, I’m sorry, I was rash and hasty, and I said something I shouldn’t have said. I’m kicking myself, if it’s any consolation.
