Editors – In This Light And On This Evening

"Ooh, looky who’s got some synthesisers?"

Editors

In This Light And On This Evening

Kitchenware/Columbia

Ooh, looky who’s got some synthesisers? I really didn’t expect to like this record. In fact I’d already half written the review in my head, with lots of clichéd references to Editors jumping on the 80s synth bandwagon.

The press pack arrived with a slightly bizarre letter to the listener from frontman Tom Smith. At times it sounds like an apology, while elsewhere it is just a defiant two-fingers to any predictable criticism for going ‘all electronic’. Either way it smacks of someone who was really expecting some kind of backlash, admitting that “this album will alienate some Editors fans, it will split opinion…good.”

The slower tracks have never quite rung true on previous Editors albums but the layered, brooding atmosphere of album closer Walk the Fleet Road is a triumph, while single Papillon is unmistakably Editors, with its catchy hook and soar-away chorus.

They may have ditched the guitars, but they have retained the unerring sense of melody. The constant buzz of electronic noises can grate but overall it is worth persevering.