Written
4th July 2013:
Editors
– The Weight of Your Love
The Band: Thom Smith
(lead vocals\guitar), Justin Lockey (lead guitar), Elliott Williams (guitar), Russell
Leetch (bass), Edward Lay (drums)
So
today’s review sees the long-awaited return of Editors (@editorsofficial if you
wish to follow them on Twitter) with this their much-anticipated 4th album ‘The
Weight of Your Love’. The band arrived
on the scene with their excellent brooding, yet fast-flowing guitar-based debut
album ‘The Back Room’ back in 2005, with strong singles ‘Bullets’, ‘Munich’,
‘Blood’ and ‘All Sparks’ quickly helping the band gain national airplay,
recognition and an army of fans. This
was followed up by 2007’s effort ‘An End has a Start’ another strong follow-up
for the band with more heavy-hitting singles further cementing the band’s
reputation for no-nonsense, dark downbeat yet catchy guitar-rock. 2009’s ‘In This Light and On This Evening’
saw the band further themselves with a more synth-driven direction ambitiously blending
their already familiar guitar sound which was met by a mixed-response but
general consensus was another successful album for the band especially with
standout single ‘Papillion’, which leads us on nicely to this week’s release.
The
Weight of Your Love
1. The
Weight
2. Sugar3. A Ton of Love
4. What is this thing called Love
5. Honesty
6. Nothing
7. Formaldehyde
8. Hyena
9. Two Hearted Spider
10. The
Phone Book
11. Bird
of Prey
Launching
with swirling guitars and piano notes before a marching percussion ‘The Weight’
gets the album under way featuring Tom’s trademark isolated vocals “For a moment/I felt the weight of your
love/It was lightening/It was lightening”; it’s a moody, atmospheric,
deliberate track with its continued percussion being layered with sharp,
angular guitar riffs and piano notes throughout and sets the overall tone for
the record early on. ‘Sugar’ is again
initially driven by distinct percussion with a tingling guitar riff at the
heart of the track; it’s another very atmospheric track with a bittersweet vibe
about it. ‘A Ton of Love’ was the first
we had previously heard from this record as it was the band’s comeback single. It’s a distinctly big Editors guitar anthem
fast-paced and up-beat with Tom belting out the repeated “De-sire” midway through the track with great passion and urgency and
sounding great.
‘What
is this thing called Love’ as the track title suggests is a soft-ballad, as
Tom’s vocals, backed with gentle piano notes and later in the track violins,
are pitched much higher on this track than previously heard so far on the
album. It’s a soft, sweet track and
clearly emotional “What is this thing
called love that you speak?/We’re out of it/We’re out of it”. Fifth track ‘Honesty’ continues the gentle slow
pace of the album at this point, with a steady rhythm of guitar and percussion
and gentle touches of soothing synths adding layers to it while featuring
another big chorus “Does the honesty deceive?/Trying
to find a way to leave this party/Take it out on me/Cause all the honesty/Shut
this place down”. ‘Nothing’ is
another ballad, this time much more minimal simply featuring Tom’s vocals with
backing synths and string sections it’s another deeply emotional track and
continues to build as the track progresses.
‘Formaldehyde’
picks up the pace again midway through the record, using the toxic gas chemical
as an analogy to a relationship, backed with catchy tingling guitar riffs and a
one-two chorus between Tom’s lead and backing vocals “Formaldehyde/Never let you go/Formaldehyde/’til the end of time”. Meanwhile ‘Hyena’ features a nice opening
guitar riff at its heart progressing the track along nicely, very much
capturing the unmistakably familiar sound that Editors are well known for and
overall it’s quite an instant type of track.
‘Two Hearted Spider’ slows the pace of the record once more, nudged
along with a gentle bass-line and guitar riff with real focus on Tom’s vocals “Every move you make/Breaks me/Breaks
me/Every smile you fake/Breaks Me/Breaks Me”, it’s another deep, thought-provoking track, a common theme found throughout
this record.
Featuring
a driving acoustic rhythm, penultimate track ‘The Phone Book’ again shows a
much more stripped-down side of Editors with some focus on slide-guitar and has
a bit of a Western feeling at the heart of it with the main rhythm of the track,
while closing track ‘Bird of Prey’ is a bit more up-tempo again being driven by
percussion throughout and another picked guitar riff and featuring backing
synths and violins; it’s another soft, gentle track with a focus on the atmosphere
it creates rather than being a hard-hitting guitar anthem.
So
overall this has been an interesting record to review from Editors. This album has a steady blend of more familiar,
fast-paced guitar tracks that we have come to expect from the band in the past particularly
on the tracks ‘A Ton of Love’ and ‘Hyena’ but with this record there seems to
be much more of a focus on the soft, emotional thought-provoking tracks the
band have also sometimes hinted on with previous records; see ‘What is this thing
called Love’, ‘Honesty’ and ‘Two Hearted Spider’ for examples of this. Therefore, when it comes to listening to ‘The
Weight of Your Love’ I think fans of Editors who are already quite familiar
with their darker, deep sound may take to this album quite quickly, while to
the more casual listener may find it may take a few more listens to fully
appreciate it as it’s not as instant as earlier albums ‘The Back Room’ or ‘An
End has a Start’. So therefore I’m going
to give this one 7 Two Hearted Spiders out of 10, as overall this record is
somewhat of a mixed bag and for me personally it doesn’t quite reach the highs
of ‘The Back Room’ or ‘An End has a Start’ but if you do prefer the emotional, softer-side
of Editors then you may find quite a lot to like with this record.
Editor
Flynny
Track
1 ‘The Weight’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBaGm4e2oao
Track
3 ‘A Ton of Love’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQQ2gTkV-GM
Band
website:
http://www.editorsofficial.com 
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