In This Light And On This Evening: Editors (*1/2) <Kitchenware> Genre: Post Punk, New Wave, Goth Rock Ripping off Joy Division has reached a new level of crap Every year or so, some band (usually from the UK) tries to recapture the glory set by either Joy Division or Echo & The Bunnymen.  The result is a band that sounds dark and serious, and ultimately, melodramatic and just plain boring.  It’s a really hard genre to emulate, I guess, because the only band to have done this and succeed is Interpol.  And even then, only the first Interpol album was actually incredible (okay, Antics was pretty good, but Our Love To Admire sucked arse).  So many bands have died by trying to make a modern day Unknown Pleasures.  Remember She Wants Revenge?  That’s what I thought.   The same goes for Editors, a band from the UK that emerge a few years back.  They had some decent singles that harked obvious Echo & The Bunnymen influences, but eh… it was all in good fun.  But you can only delve into those influences for so long.  Bands need to evolve and find their own voice if they want to succeed in the long run.  Well, there is a change on their latest release, In This Light And On This Evening.  Instead of the giant guitar driven anthemic dark rock made on their previous attempts, the Editors have instead opted for synth heavy arrangements in favor of a darker, more gothic, Depehce Mode-esque approach to their music.  The anthemic hugeness is ever present, if only exacerbated by the introduction of sawtooth lead synthesizers.   So why does this record suck?  Well, for one, this record borrows from the early 80’s dark gothic era so much it almost feels like satire.  The ridiculously overdone low bravado vocals actually made me laugh out loud a couple times.  Seriously, you need to listen to this first single, “Papillon.”  Is this singer for real?  It’s like Joy Division sung by a guy who’s done musical theatre his whole life.  Everything is so exaggerated, but the shitty part about all of it is that these guys are for real.  Everything is so dark and serious, and I understand that’s the idea, but come on!  It doesn’t need to be so overdone.   The production on a whole is bland, to say the least.  There’s no variation in melody or tempo or volume or… anything.  It’s one giant, flat, boring, piece of synth rock.  I appreciate a change in style for the Editors, but this is just the wrong direction for them.  If they’re going to be so dark and serious, I suggest a bit of variety.  One overly dark and serious song is fine (“You Don’t Know Love” is pretty decent), but please don’t do it for the whole album, and don’t overdo it.  That’s the record’s biggest problem.  It’s too overdone, and it takes itself waaaaaay too seriously. Key Tracks: “You Don’t Know Love” For Fans Of: Joy Division, Interpol, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Bravery

In This Light And On This Evening: Editors (*1/2) <Kitchenware>

Genre: Post Punk, New Wave, Goth Rock

Ripping off Joy Division has reached a new level of crap

Every year or so, some band (usually from the UK) tries to recapture the glory set by either Joy Division or Echo & The Bunnymen.  The result is a band that sounds dark and serious, and ultimately, melodramatic and just plain boring.  It’s a really hard genre to emulate, I guess, because the only band to have done this and succeed is Interpol.  And even then, only the first Interpol album was actually incredible (okay, Antics was pretty good, but Our Love To Admire sucked arse).  So many bands have died by trying to make a modern day Unknown Pleasures.  Remember She Wants Revenge?  That’s what I thought.  

The same goes for Editors, a band from the UK that emerge a few years back.  They had some decent singles that harked obvious Echo & The Bunnymen influences, but eh… it was all in good fun.  But you can only delve into those influences for so long.  Bands need to evolve and find their own voice if they want to succeed in the long run.  Well, there is a change on their latest release, In This Light And On This Evening.  Instead of the giant guitar driven anthemic dark rock made on their previous attempts, the Editors have instead opted for synth heavy arrangements in favor of a darker, more gothic, Depehce Mode-esque approach to their music.  The anthemic hugeness is ever present, if only exacerbated by the introduction of sawtooth lead synthesizers.  

So why does this record suck?  Well, for one, this record borrows from the early 80’s dark gothic era so much it almost feels like satire.  The ridiculously overdone low bravado vocals actually made me laugh out loud a couple times.  Seriously, you need to listen to this first single, “Papillon.”  Is this singer for real?  It’s like Joy Division sung by a guy who’s done musical theatre his whole life.  Everything is so exaggerated, but the shitty part about all of it is that these guys are for real.  Everything is so dark and serious, and I understand that’s the idea, but come on!  It doesn’t need to be so overdone.  

The production on a whole is bland, to say the least.  There’s no variation in melody or tempo or volume or… anything.  It’s one giant, flat, boring, piece of synth rock.  I appreciate a change in style for the Editors, but this is just the wrong direction for them.  If they’re going to be so dark and serious, I suggest a bit of variety.  One overly dark and serious song is fine (“You Don’t Know Love” is pretty decent), but please don’t do it for the whole album, and don’t overdo it.  That’s the record’s biggest problem.  It’s too overdone, and it takes itself waaaaaay too seriously.

Key Tracks: “You Don’t Know Love”

For Fans Of: Joy Division, Interpol, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Bravery