Editors
The Back Room
Release Date: Mar 21, 2006
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Record label: Fader / Kitchenware
Music Critic Score
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Album Review: The Back Room by Editors
Exceptionally Good, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 9/10
Before issuing their debut, The Back Room, in August 2005, Editors were immediately compared to the dark, brooding sounds of Interpol as well as the post-punk brashness of Echo & the Bunnymen. Singles such as "Blood" and "Bullets" quickly put Editors in the elite crowd of those to watch that year. The band -- Tom Smith (vocals/guitar), Chris Urbanowicz (guitar), Russell Leetch (bass), and Ed Lay (drums) -- compose a tight rock sound that's both raw and defined, particularly on album opener "Lights." Editors are an anxious, frantic, and passionate group, and the album is done with taste from the start.
Based on rating 4/5
Editors, a four-piece from Birmingham currently suffering from slow-burning hype, don't so much jog memories of Joy Division as channel the ripe but fashionable spirit of Ian Curtis and co. Bursting into another endless fit of angry buzzing, the duelling guitars pose the question as to whether this is a thrilling and euphoric post-punk vision of bleakness, or merely the hypnotic sound of two trapped wasps torn between flight or fight. But the longer you listen, the better they become.