In terms of musical experience, West London's THE HORRORS are still pretty wet behind the ears. One of them's still at school and they've only been honing their sound since around the Spring of 2003.
Yet, their first single "Crashophilia" once again suggests there's no substitute for youthful exuberance, pent-up aggression and attitude-fuelled indiscretion when diving into the music biz's shark-infested waters. You've either got the spark or you ain't, and these three songs suggest The Horrors have. Or at least a certain something.
Both "Crashophilia" and second tune "Cybering" are brash, full-on three minute tunes plus, driven by spunk, excitement and raging hormones. "Crashophilia" is launched by an impressive, rocket launch clarion call and settles into fractious guitar pop, with Emma's plangent backing vocals colliding with Stuart's gruffer lead vox and Emma's nee-naw police siren synth adding a Pere Ubu-style tinge.
"Cybering", meanwhile, appears to be a paean to the wonders of cyber sex and digital liaisons, with that repeated kiss-off line of "You know that you want it", nicked furtively from those Pot Noodle ads. Again it's standard enough ramalama, but the glitchy, buzzy mini-moog-ish synths spur them into visceral violence and the whole thing is tuneful and unwholesome enough to be interesting.
|
Closing track "Take A Line From Your Favourite Song,", though, is arguably the best thing here. It's nippy, fizzy pop, though slightly more old-fashioned and easily melodic. The way Stuart and Emma's vocals mesh is again attractive and the fact it's rather less gimmicky helps it through. Funnily enough, it suits them in a very natural way and suggests they don't have to try quite so hard to be modern to succeed.
Anyway, good single, good start. The Horrors' brattily enjoyable synth-rok-pop may not be horribly original, but will surely work a treat when they visit your local flea pit come their October tour and on record carves out a likeable adolescent niche. Nasty little horrors these are not.
|
