Fantastic, I thought, finally a new Horrors album for me to sink my teeth into, writes Jade Knox.
Having first heard the band in 2008, a year after they had brought out their garage punk style album Strange House, I had a feeling that this was the start of something glorious and continued to follow them on their musical journey.
Strange House was perfectly timed for me as that was exactly the genre I was exploring and I thoroughly enjoyed the slightly darker image of the band. With their Chelsea boots and incredible hair they brought such personality to the table at the time when nothing similar to this was really knocking about.
Gradually, over time, the group lost the look and seemed to settled for simple leather jackets and I supposed for Primary Colours and Skying I was relatively happy, they had calmed down, and so had my teen angst, so I appreciated the move to something a just a little more mellow than ‘Jack The Ripper’.
Now, on to Luminous… Well, I may have gotten older but I’m not in my eighties yet. I was SO disappointed listening to this album, the moment the first track kicked in I felt I knew what was going to happen. Songs seemed to plod along one after the other with no great enthusiasm. I can appreciate a slower more ambient track, ‘I Only Think of You’ is my all-time favourite but it’s a long shot from dull which is genuinely how I felt about the majority of this release. There was a time for me that when I heard The Horrors I would jump out of my seat and dance; songs such as ‘Scarlet Fields’ and ‘Monica Gems’ from ‘Primary Colours’ and ‘Skying’ respectively but in the case of Luminous, there was not so much of a foot tap.
I am not completely writing this album off for everyone, if you had not really followed the group from the start and this is where you are starting then maybe it will seem much more impressive. I could definitely use it to study with as nothing about it is particularly distracting or it could be a good method if you are having trouble sleeping. Some magic has definitely been lost somewhere along the road to this album for me and I don’t know whether this has been a conscious decision by the band or whether someone else may be pulling some strings to get these fellas more and more mainstream.
Hopefully when I see the band on 30/09/2014 at the lovely Leadmill the live performance may add a little bit of substance or passion that I’ve not found simply listening to the album.
