The Horrors - Night Life

The Horrors are one of those bands who are always reliably brilliant. They never let you down and are always inventive and mystifying, dark and alluring. Most importantly, they are still here, which few people would have predicted when they emerged with the unhinged scrappy punk chaos of their debut ‘Strange House’. Almost 20 years later, though, it is a slightly reconfigured Horrors that return with their sixth album ‘Night Life’, their first without Tom Furse and Joe Spurgeon and renergised by new members Amelia Kidd on keyboards and drummer Jordan Cook.

The personnel might be slightly different, but the band have lost none of their bewitching qualities as they dive deeper into a sleazy, dark electro sound that evokes Depeche Mode at their drug lord messiah commercial peak. Faris Badwan’s recognisable baritone provides the focal point for swirls of electro beats and pulsating rhythms like on the dizzying ‘Lotus Eater’ while single ‘More Than Life’ manages a near trick of sounding both foreboding and euphoric at the same time. The duality of The Horrors wrapped up in 5 minutes.

There’s a rough-edged iciness at work here that fits the melancholy and darkness of Faris’ lyrics that give the album added emotional heft, as evidenced by the stunning ‘Silence That Remains’. Revelling in their history and carving a path for a new future, The Horrors feel as vital as ever.