Album Review: Editors – In Dream
2 min read
Editors are one of those bands that have flitted around since the early 2000s, always there, playing music, and never retreating to the musician graveyard. There is reason for this; they’re pretty damn good at what they do. With new album In Dream, they’ve once again turned their main focus towards the electronic, adding their signature sombre tones over the top for a record that shows a band in form.
No Harm is your gateway into the album, inviting you in with reverberating synths and deep bass reminiscent of 90s Massive Attack. This simple but effective opener is all at once transformed when singer Tom Smith’s multi-toned vocals enter the picture with the usual lyrics of poignant imagery: ‘I’ll boil easier than you, crushing my bones into glue’.
Life Is A Fear feels distant yet merciful, all at the same time, and the track plays on this. Like many Editors songs, its one of dystopian atmosphere and anxiety that covers you like a warm blanket. Not many tracks can portray this kind of feeling, and there’s no band better at releasing emotions in this way than Editors.
Forgiveness with its layered vocals on top of a rolling beat sounds like something Bowie would have done in his later days, but with that distinct Editors feel giving it a cold release, whereas Our Love draws rhythms from Bronski Beat, with eerie vocal effects that pierce the music and send it through to the other side. Both tracks show off the impressive and meticulous mixing involved on the record -possibly the bands most intricate and obsessive so far.
In Dream manages to deliver what fans would expect, but also add a few new layers to the music that make it really stand out. Editors have not sat still since they hit the scene, and this album shows that they’ve been learning, progressing and mutating their sound, as all good bands should.
