British five-piece The Horrors have proved that they can be bold, with their almost surprising knee-jerk transition from the post-punk origins of Primary Colours and Strange House to the far sunnier and syntheir psychedelic presence of their third album, Skying.
Skying though, held onto some of the band’s guitar-centred focus of Primary Colours, and while that same train of thought still remains in Luminous to an extent, the band’s fourth LP is a sleeker enhancement to its predecessor.
In that sense, the album is greater in terms of the electronica that has ironed out the now almost unrecognisable post-punk kinks (not that they were ever bad) that were still visible in Skying. Which, for fans of the band’s more pop-centric choruses, is great news.
The songwriting here takes a turn for the catchy and tosses up the glorious hooks of ‘Falling Star’, ‘So Now You Know’, and ‘First Day Of Spring’.
That’s not to say the band have lost their psychedelic audacity though. Early single ‘I See You’ goes beyond anything they’ve ever done before with a seemingly unstoppable seven-minute build.
While the heavily electronic ‘In And Out Of Sight’ and closer in ‘Sleepwalk’ signify a greater confidence in the direction they took with their last album, ‘Change Your Mind’ deviates with a tale of romantic longing.
That ballad moment is the biggest surprise packet of a record, which does its best to show off just how much The Horrors have worn in their new shoes since Skying.
Luminous, just as the title conveys, is that little bit brighter, but its biggest leap is in its ability to make The Horrors sound more assured than they’ve ever been before.
We’ll let the dust settle before deciding on whether it’s their best record, but there’s no doubt that Luminous is a definitive statement in terms of The Horrors’ sound.
Listen to ‘I See You’ from Luminous here:
