Editors:
The Weight Of Your Love:
PIAS:
Out Now:
7/10
Now refreshed with new members and minus long-standing guitarist Chris Urbanowicz (that old musical direction thing did for him), Editors have delivered a serviceable, functional and robust fourth album in The Weight Of Your Love, despite its pompous title. Perhaps a little tellingly though, the chart-success of their previous albums hasn't been duplicated - it stalled at number 6, breaking the run of two successive chart-toppers.
Still, numbers schnumbers - times change, audiences drift in different directions and its to the band's credit that anyone gives a toss about them at all in these times of celebrity mediocrity and fake-tan pop. On the basis of most of TWOYL, Editors will still in pull in the punters at their headline shows (later in 2013) and earn airplay off the back of the first single, the Echo and the Bunnymen-esque A Ton Of Love.
As well as that belter of a single, there is much to like on here, provided you can tolerate singer Tom Smith's embellishment of big American bands hellbent on anthems - Arcade Fire, The National et al - and '80s UK new-wave and, dare I whisper, goth! Opening track The Weight is perhaps the least likely album-opener, although it does have a memorable enough start before sounding like U2 circa War, a recurring comparison it has to be said.
Contenders for 'best track' include the brooding and chunky Sugar (which reminds me of The Mission crossed with later-period Depeche Mode), the sort-of political Hyena and the album's excellent closing track Bird Of Prey, rounding off a trio of tunes that will buoy a swollen sea of eager concert-going fans. Honourable mentions too for Two Hearted Spider and the folksy The Phone Book, the latter the least likely Editors song on the album - think Broken Records or Stornoway, rather than their usual blustery sub-Cure trademark.
What lets the album down is the central portion, the crucial bit in other words. What Is This Thing Called Love is frankly awful - we're talking Westlife territory here, a ham-fisted ballad so dewy-eyed, wet and doleful, you could wash your entire soul with it yet still feel dirty afterwards. Honesty and Nothing are nicely arranged, beautifully sung but rather polite, while the rakish Formaldehyde isn't so much a song as a buzzword set to a forgettable indie-by-numbers concept that falls short of the mark. Many onlookers may have switched off by now - it feels like the end of an album, not the middle - but, being an Editors aficionado, I persevered.
Better are two of the extras on the bonus CD - b-side The Sting and the new Get Low are good enough to be on the main album, plus there's a rather uncomplicated (and superior) acoustic rendition of Nothing to boot. These nuggets make for an intriguing package well worth tracking down (the price shouldn't be much more than the standard edition).
Far stronger than the disappointing second album An End Is a Start, less cold than the last set In This Light and On This Evening but not a patch on the gritty debut The Back Room, The Weight Of Your Love appears to be the sum of all these album's variable parts, minus that all important euphoric spark of Munich, Bullets or the title track of In This Light.
The Weight Of Your Love:
PIAS:
Out Now:
7/10
Still, numbers schnumbers - times change, audiences drift in different directions and its to the band's credit that anyone gives a toss about them at all in these times of celebrity mediocrity and fake-tan pop. On the basis of most of TWOYL, Editors will still in pull in the punters at their headline shows (later in 2013) and earn airplay off the back of the first single, the Echo and the Bunnymen-esque A Ton Of Love.
As well as that belter of a single, there is much to like on here, provided you can tolerate singer Tom Smith's embellishment of big American bands hellbent on anthems - Arcade Fire, The National et al - and '80s UK new-wave and, dare I whisper, goth! Opening track The Weight is perhaps the least likely album-opener, although it does have a memorable enough start before sounding like U2 circa War, a recurring comparison it has to be said.
Contenders for 'best track' include the brooding and chunky Sugar (which reminds me of The Mission crossed with later-period Depeche Mode), the sort-of political Hyena and the album's excellent closing track Bird Of Prey, rounding off a trio of tunes that will buoy a swollen sea of eager concert-going fans. Honourable mentions too for Two Hearted Spider and the folksy The Phone Book, the latter the least likely Editors song on the album - think Broken Records or Stornoway, rather than their usual blustery sub-Cure trademark.
What lets the album down is the central portion, the crucial bit in other words. What Is This Thing Called Love is frankly awful - we're talking Westlife territory here, a ham-fisted ballad so dewy-eyed, wet and doleful, you could wash your entire soul with it yet still feel dirty afterwards. Honesty and Nothing are nicely arranged, beautifully sung but rather polite, while the rakish Formaldehyde isn't so much a song as a buzzword set to a forgettable indie-by-numbers concept that falls short of the mark. Many onlookers may have switched off by now - it feels like the end of an album, not the middle - but, being an Editors aficionado, I persevered.
Better are two of the extras on the bonus CD - b-side The Sting and the new Get Low are good enough to be on the main album, plus there's a rather uncomplicated (and superior) acoustic rendition of Nothing to boot. These nuggets make for an intriguing package well worth tracking down (the price shouldn't be much more than the standard edition).
Far stronger than the disappointing second album An End Is a Start, less cold than the last set In This Light and On This Evening but not a patch on the gritty debut The Back Room, The Weight Of Your Love appears to be the sum of all these album's variable parts, minus that all important euphoric spark of Munich, Bullets or the title track of In This Light.