The Beat Surrender

Birminghams Editors have had a dream start to their career so far, a limited edition single release that is critically acclaimed and finds itself changing hands on eBay for thirty quid within a day of it’s release, followed by a second single that makes a visible dent on the top twenty five and then topping that with the recent release of Blood which found itself nestling around the twenty mark.

Releasing three great singles (and admittedly throwing away storming b-sides on all of them as well) is not beyond the ability of a lot of bands, what is beyond most bands capability is getting compared to some of the cult musical greats of the last thirty years and coming out the other side of your debut album release still very much with your reputation in tact.

Editors have managed that though and it has to be said they’ve managed it at a canter. On first listen I wasn’t so sure, the comparisons are obvious (more of them later) and taking away the three singles out of the equation it left the rest of the album with an almost anti-climactic feel to it, sure the songs were well produced, the playing was tight and in Tom Smith they have a distinctive and accomplished vocalist, but the other tracks did sound slightly derivative and lacked the insistent quality of the trio of singles.

That was the first listen though, as I travelled to work and back last week I found myself listening to the album over and over again, the first couple of times I was forcing myself for the sake of the review as it’s only fair to give an album a few listens, but gradually another piece of the jigsaw clicked in to place for me and I found myself really getting into the album. I’ve played it twice again this weekend already and it’s just getting better and better, each moody guitar line getting stronger and stronger, the drum salvos courtesy of Ed Lays hitting home harder each time I hear them, to the point that I’m now actually loving the album.

Yes, Joy Division, Echo and The Bunnymen and Interpol are all fair reference points to make to the band and in particular the vocals on some tracks do have an Ian Curtis ring in as far as the range covered, but the Editors have so much more to offer than that, it may be a sound that borrows some inspiration from the afore mentioned bands but it’s a sound they’ve honed themselves into a powerful and dramatic one of their own. One reference I haven’t seen banded about too much is REM. The opening track Lights reminded me so much of Michael Stipe vocally, it was only when the track began to soar towards it’s rocking end that I was able to put those thoughts to one side, maybe that’s just me though.

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