Album Review: The Horrors - 'Night Life'
A new line-up and a new sound: A sixth weighs in delightful ambience.
Twenty years since their conception, The Horrors reprise their role as a definitive sound of the decade with their sixth, Night Life. The outfit behind Still Life and Sea Within a Sea, not only return with a new look but with a whole new line-up too- founding members vocalist Faris Badwan and bassist Rhys Webb remain at the core, but are joined by Amelia Kidd on keys and Telegram's Jordan Cook on drums.
The last time we had a new major Horrors project in our ears was in 2017 with V. A seemingly apt title for a fifth record, it's sprawling set piece of Something to Remember Me By was an ethereal synth-indie joy; a running on the beach, if you will. Along with Mercury-nominated Primary Colours and indie Skying that set them apart in 2011, the band have been lauded as an alternative triumph for the better half of a decade, consistently free-roaming across an expansive plain of sub-genres - not to mention their debut of brazen-punk Strange House in 2007 which sounds entirely incompatible to what we have grown accustomed to since.
But a lot has happened since then. Having reached a crossroads following their fifth, a pandemic lockdown jolted the world in perpetual motion and an inevitable crossroad was met for the group who up to this point, had remained ever-committed to the cause.
Magnified by a lockdown wrought in a perspective for family time, drummer Joe Spurgeon bowed out early while keyboard player Tom Furse and guitarist Josh Hayward soon followed soon, the step back from touring forcing the hands of many artists in an industry over-reliant of the live scope.
Post-2021, saw a pair of EPs being released with both 'Lout' and 'Against the Blade' marking the first in new music aswell as a new chapter for the band at their most enthralling, undoubtedly eager to make up for lost time and spearheading a new direction for the pair uncompromising against the grain.
While the core remained at its centre, Night Life will be The Horrors' first record to not feature its five original members. With the process of LP Number 6 initially slimmed down to two - ideas blossomed in their most basic of forms as the pair had a desire to revert back to their early works.
In more ways than one, Night Life is a record weighted in space and ambience, much like the amble loneliness and quiet that sweeps the streets of LA and London. It's not about the quiet but more about the incessant thoughts that inhabit it as the world's distractions dull.
The record, rocked with lockdown-induced insomnia and identity erasure, is also one of intense melancholy. Encapsulating as the canon for the whole records' sound, it starts off with Ariel, a ritualistic surveyor of haunting vocals and whirling electronics named after "the protector angel" guiding us through life to death. This is followed by Silent Sister, a blitz of angst wrapped up in industrial machinery scrapes that is undoubtedly at one of the records' most noisy markers.
Along the way, we're met with The Silence That Remains - a terse reflection of when Faris' Palestinian father underwent a heart attack where many nights went without updates and without answers. Meanwhile, on a daily basis, Faris was
watching horrific atrocities committed against his people and culture, a ploy to raze his identity altogether. "At a time when Palestinian identity is being erased, and it feels like there are so few Palestinian musicians with a profile in the West, Palestinians should be reminding everyone of their existence,” he remarks. “Just saying ‘I am Palestinian’ feels dangerous.”
Further, we're hit with the loud buzz of Trail By Fire - a stark post-punk memento not too far off from The Murder Capital's works, while The Feeling is Gone plays into the duo's early recordings - a transient pop-lullaby full of weight and space spearheaded by Faris's wispy vocals, airy in nature. Lotus Eater soon gains the rapport of the groups' most far-out idea and a real turning point in the records' scope. A hypnotic seven-minute escape of a cathartic release, it is a busy portrayal of society's alienation.More Than Life drives a similar wave of sounds we heard on Skying - their third rich in shoegaze-y alternative works - which is far more direct and driving in its beat compared to its surrounding neighbours.
While the album is dripped in this crippling darkness surrounding fear and isolation marking themes the project was born out of, it also has spurring moments of joy amongst it. After all, they've done it, it's a materialised artform and it's here on our doorstep. Tapping into your creativity will always be a joyous moment in connecting with yourself. LA Runaway closes the record in an exuberant finish with a song at their most straightforward lyrically and their most keen-spirited musically denoting 4am snapshots of barely able to sleep a wink. What better way to write and write than in the dead of night?
In ways of laying all it on the line, Night Life is a testament to the pairs inability to let go of such a project with promise. Projected with this beautiful darkness, it's cinematic sweep throughout its nine tracks is a perfect accompaniment to night walks or panoramic views of a city asleep. It's hauntingly beautiful; daringly bold and easily at their most darkest.
Despite the roadblocks in preventing the record from happening, the expansive eight-year journey of Night Life has all the making of a record destined for its time in the sun.
Words by Alex Curle
