Editors 'In This Light And On This Evening'

Editors
In This Light And On This Evening
(Sony Music)

Let’s pretend we know nothing about Editors.

What, then, are we to make of their music taken in splendid isolation? Should we lavishly praise the way it manages to recapture the mood of the UK in the early 80s (Heaven 17, Spandau Ballet, Haysi Fantayzee) while simultaneously refusing to step out of line with the dance floor, circa 2009? Should we be overwhelmed by its consistency of sound (courtesy of producer Flood), the blandness of the vocals? If we are to decry Wolfmother for a slavish adoration of riffs that took place three decades earlier, should we not also take Editors to task for their Gothic overtones, the way they sound like the weakest of all early 80s British bands (Bauhaus), string-softened and with the edges rounded off for easy self-immolation?

Or should we not care, invoke the “all art builds upon what went before” clause, and instead focus on the outer sounds and cheeky OMD electronics that make second track ‘Bricks And Mortar’ way more palatable than the rest of the album combined. See the danger – always danger – in endless talking, life rebuilding?

This dark disco can be seductive, if you don’t care to listen to music too closely.

I mean, far be it from me to point out that the music and beat and style of singing and wash of keyboards and lyrical bent of ‘Papillon’ has been done many times before, and usually better. After all, in a year where LCD Soundsystem are being feted with creating an Album of the Decade for meticulously building upon the New Order template, why carp on about Editors? OK, so ‘Like Treasure’ is pure drivel and ‘Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool’ with its bouncy rolling beat makes Oasis sound innovative, but – c’mon guys. You can’t blame a band for not trying, not when they’ve already sold millions of records and been nominated for numerous awards for playing it safe this far.

It’s clear that they take themselves seriously, these Editors.

Singer Tom Smith sings like a man whose every word is laden with portent – or Echo And The Bunnymen singer Ian McCulloch given a severe humour bypass (Echo And The Bunnymen, then). You can tell this is a post-Radiohead band from one glance at the sleeve: songs have titles like the aforementioned ‘Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool’, ‘Walk The Fleet Road’ and ‘You Don’t Know Love’ (which actually appears to have been inspired by The Da Vinci Code). Indeed, on the especially irritating and faux-brooding ‘You Don’t Know Love’, Smith slips off the early '80s affectation for a moment and imitates Thom Yorke so ably it’s a wonder that Yorke doesn’t have an identity crisis every time he rises in the morning. Perhaps he does.

Elsewhere, Smith croons “Give a dog a bone/He’ll eat for the day/But teach him how to kill then/I am the coast defence/I am the city wall” (‘Bricks And Mortar’) and “A bruised full moon/Play fights with the stars/This place is our prison/Its cells are our bars” (‘The Boxer’)…so you can hardly accuse him of not being deep.

For my sins, I interviewed Chris Martin just before Coldplay hit the massive time: he revealed that he aspired to be as great as The Flaming Lips one day…in his dreams. It will never happen. Coldplay sell millions precisely because they are mediocre.

The same, sadly, holds true for Editors. I have no idea why anyone would even want to compare them to Joy Division, though.

Everett True



Editors - 'Papillon'