I made a halfhearted attempt to get into Editors back in 2005, when The Back Room was being touted as album of the year material. I failed, mostly because I’d already exceeded my “bands that sound just like Interpol” quota. I mean, I liked Turn on the Bright Lights too — I liked it enough to waste my money on Antics a year or two later, in fact — but whatever else you want to say about them, Interpol were hardly the standard-bearers for originality.
But they’re the freaking Beatles compared to Editors, at least on the basis of Editors’ sophomore release, An End Has a Start, which, despite the band’s name, doesn’t lead me to believe that they can even spell “originality.” It’s a strictly by-the-numbers release, cribbed together from several hundred listens of Closer, plus snatches of old Bauhaus and Siouxsie and the Banshees records, with a few dashes of Disintegration tossed in for good measure. The drums capture all of Stephen Morris’ tendency to clatter without his visionary sense of placement, the bass stays way too high up in the mix without doing anything melodic, and the guitars whine endlessly as they’re sucked down a crystal tunnel of reverb. Editor-in-chief Tom Smith’s voice, a bland baritone that duplicates the timbre of Ian Curtis without capturing any of the emotion, doesn’t help lend these songs any identity.
Actually, this is a strangely emotionless release in general, one that not only doesn’t capture any of the industrial despair that fueled the original postpunk bands, but doesn’t even manage the snarling theatricality of Muse, or the sarcastic playfulness of Tokyo Police Club. It’s flat and leaden, like a black-and-white photo of a Rothko canvas. The mediocre lyrics, which are full of lines that sound vaguely profound when you don’t listen carefully (”How can you always be late for your arrival?”) and inexcusable cliches (at this point, no one should be releasing a song with a chorus that goes: “Don’t drown in your tears, babe / You know I won’t always be there,” which is how the one on “Put Your Head Towards the Air” goes), only enhance this effect. As does the piano-clinking album closer, “Well Worn Hand,” which sounds like the work of a bunch of fellows who’d be soundly thrashed if they got into a fistfight with Coldplay.
An End Has a Start may well get some good reviews — it doesn’t sound bad, necessarily, especially if you’re not paying that much attention, and it does tread heavily on some well-respected touchstones. But make no mistake, this is only a shallow imitation of something done better in many other hands, a sort of depressingly unnecessary Postpunk! at the Disco.
Release date: June 25, 2007
Label: Kitchenware
Rating: 4/10
9 Comments »
eew, this album sounds vile.
dude…you just compared interpol to the beatles…and i literally laughed out loud! i love this. snarkiest post of the day!
I think this post has had the reverse effect on me, instead of wanting to avoid it, i now want to hear it, to see how bad it really could be!
thats what you get for writing a funny yet harsh review! INTEREST!
[...] a band that has spawned so many imitators, it’s a shame that Interpol doesn’t inspire itself far beyond their own emulous [...]
Just Great album! By the way, here is some useful
website devoted to the
An End Has A Start album: http://www.editors-an-end-has-a-start.info/
It sounds like this reviewer already had a biased opinion before listening to the album. In a world of copy cats you can’t escape comaparisons, stop trying the originality. It doesn’t exsit anymore. That being said this album is awesome, and anyone who says anything negative can’t passed their pre conceived notions. Thats too bad because if you listened to the album a few more times you would realize its beauty.
Seriously, do all new music blogs go through some sort of hazing in the first year where everyone attempts to critique their reviews with the most chiche’d rebuttals around? First my TMBG review gets the “so where’s YOUR music?” treatment (despite it being pretty damn easy to find my band via this site, ha), and now here’s the ol’ “no one is original; it’s all been done” argument.
Even today, after the “death of rock” (thanks, every music magazine ever), there is a difference between being “influenced by” and being “derivative of.” As long as humans are born as unique creatures, it will be possible to put your own unique spin on your influences. It just takes some actual work…work that a lot of bands don’t bother with. Apparently Sam and Drew fall on opposite ends of the “influenced by”/”derivative of” spectrum. It happens.
Um, i meand “cliche’d.” Morning typo.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Comment by hotshotrobot — June 19, 2007 @ 7:03 pm
There’s just something about an expertly-written, incisive negative review. …Aaaaaah.