Search - Editors :: In This Light & On This Evening

Creeping even weepier

K. D. Kelly | sf, ca | 02/13/2010

(1 out of 5 stars)

"When I first heard of The Editors, the name struck me as rather insipid -- why not just call yourselves The Publicists or The Consultants? How about The Behind the Scenes Advisory Committee? I have since come to the realization that there are just too many bands on Earth, as I later learned there was a short-lived outfit from Connecticut in the 1980s named Editors that also "idolized and imitated ... post punk bands like ... Joy Division." And there was a late-'70s heavy metal band from Slovakia called Editor. I don't even know what god they pray to in Slovakia.



In any case, I have a feeling both antecedents were livelier affairs than these mega-droll trolls from Manchester, England. The Editors' third release, "In This Light and on This Evening," is an excessively limp affair in which, after a dozen or so attempts at giving it my full attention, my mind begins to conjure up visions of goth hacks She Wants Revenge covering Burl Ives.



The Editors have always struck me as Interpol's IQ-challenged sibling. Both outfits are heavily steeped in the same gloom-and-doom idiom, drawing comparisons to early post-punk Brit bands Joy Division and Echo & the Bunnymen, but Tom Smith never sounds at ease behind the microphone. It's like he's slightly out of tune. On this outing, he shuffles uncomfortably between singsong Broadway and an imitation of Andrew Eldritch. The songs get more self-indulgent as they go along, until the album culminates in "Walk the Fleet Road," a senseless, plodding exercise in falsetto overtop a bed of syrupy synthpop.



What I guess you could call a departure from its earlier albums, "In This Light" finds the band almost completely morphed from a drums-bass-guitar formula, to layer upon layer of synth and what could be an iPhone drumming app hooked up to a speakerbox. It's as if The Editors are aiming for a (more marketable?) The Killers-Depeche Mode sound. Without at least the rock foundation, the album comes off all skin and no meat. Not satisfying at all."

Half lit

IRate | 04/08/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"




Deploying indie rock relevancy rule # 3 :Go electro doesn't hide a majority of mediocre melodies, despite a few hungry hooks and an overall pleasing production."