It has been a long journey for Southend’s The Horrors from the ramshackle gothic/punk outfit that started in 2005 with chaotic live shows and a Cramps/ Damed influenced sound that saw them regarded as nothing more than entertaining pretenders.
Signing to XL Records and releasing Mercury Music Prize nominated ‘Primary Colours’ changed that perception and now Skying follows on from that progress in electrifying style.With XL Records, home to The XX, The Vaccines and of course multi million selling Adele, The Horrors have been given the time and space to develop and experiment. Skying is the sound of a band having fun and creating freely. The Ziggy Stardust and Suede influences are still there but The Horrors spaced out shoegazing rock is much more than the sum of its influences. Skying spans genres with glee, ‘I Can See Through You’ is a ‘Together in Electric Dreams’ for the 2010s, ‘Endless Blue’ lulls you into the summer haze of Cafe Del Mer at sundown before pummelling you with crashing guitars and drowning you in white noise.
But all this is just to set the tone for the records big moment, the 8 minutes and 39 secs of the epic ‘Moving Further Away’ waves of synth line repetition give way to walls of guitar riffs led by a driving drumbeat, it even has some seagulls on the breakdown. A classic indie epic right up there with LCD’s All My Friends or The Roses’ Resurrection, yes its that good! Skying is the sound of a band brimming with confidence making hazy, swirling, brilliant music.
