The Horrors - Primary Colours

So The Horrors have dropped the goth look and went for something a little more socially acceptable and that's in dress sense and musical style. Still, at least Faris still has his gigantic hedge-like hair style.

Primary Colours is a surprise in more ways than one, it's far more complex and more structured in comparison to 'Strange House' which was just a garage rock orgy. Primary Colours is also in a total different style compared to it's predecessor with it being more post-punk-ish.

The Horrors don't stop with the surprises, 'Mirror's Image' the opening song to 'Primary Colours' is an electronic dream. The intro dots along at a pacey speed and when Faris enters the fold he dominates the music behind him with his graceless vocals that makes the song more of a dreamy opener. Straight after 'Mirror's Image' we are plunged into 'Three Decades' which is another electronic dream, the drumming in particular is the main highlight in this song as 'Coffin' Joe Spurgeon sustains the rhythm elegantly as he bashes his cymbals at a glancing speed.

A lot of people have been comparing 'Primary Colours' to Joy Division, well there are similarities I guess, especially in the song 'Do You Remember' as the guitar playing would be reminiscent of some of the songs of 'Unknown Pleasures' may I suggest 'Disorder' in particular. Still, The Horrors don't exactly replicate Joy Division entirely, they have the sense to distort their sound perfectly which gives it a sense of originality and makes it marvellous sound to behold. The Horrors even slightly go back to their roots on 'New Ice Age' which has the punky 100 MPH feel from 'Strange House' but even at that, the song itself isn't a minute and a half long, they drag it out a bit and make it fit with the rest of the album perfectly.

If I was to pick out the weak tracks in 'Primary Colours', then I guess there's only two out of the ten tracks available, which would be 'Who Can Say' and 'I Only Think Of You' reasons for being so, in 'Who Can Say' Faris comes out with a lame and corny spoken line of statement 'And When I Told Her I Didn't Love Her Anymore, She Cried And When I Told Her Kisses Were Not Like Before, She Cried', sorry Faris, but really, cheese and punk don't go! and with 'I Only Think Of You' well, I guess it's a nice depressing song about love and friendship but with the song being at such a slow tempo, they really don't have to drag out for seven minutes and repeat the same lyrics constantly it tends to get boring after the first two minutes and makes you think "I get the point".

The Horrors also get Stooges-like, for example, in 'I Can't Control Myself' we kind of here 'No Fun' from The Stooges self titled album back in the 60's. The sound is similar in the vocals as they stutter and strut along to the brash guitar chords that make the song entirely punk and for The Horrors, they just went retro there. One of the key songs of 'Primary Colours' would have to be the song that closes this very complex album is 'Sea Within A Sea', this song is certainly a grower, it will take it's time, but really it's worth listening to and all seven minutes and 58 seconds of it to. This song is built around an electronic buzz that constantly startles itself around Faris' vocals which just whisper for the first couple of minutes and then the rest of the band do the talking, but not lyrically... instrumentally, yes. After Faris' vocals have ceased, the keyboards stamps it's mark on the song and probably makes it the most exciting part to listen to, where it just buzzes and flickers around your brain and washes your mind clear and lets you fall in love with the music that surrounds you then suddenly Faris brings you to attention as he comes back with his groaning vocals that are sounding sleepy by this point but full of romance, he eventually puts us to sleep as he we march into a 'Sea Within A Sea'.

For a second album, The Horrors have really went for it, this is a very ambitious effort and even their debut 'Strange House' received good responses and would be a hard album to follow up, The Horrors however have executed their second album perfectly, most of 'Primary Colours' sounds nothing like it's predecessor and for that they deserve respect for their ambition and ability to change their sound so drastically but in amazing fashion, 'Primary Colours' will certainly be considered for the Mercury Prize at the end of the year, if not win it.

4½ / 5.


Linus Broadbent.