Product Description

Debut album from Birmingham band who are part of the burgeoning post-punk revival movement sweeping the charts, and whohave been compared to Interpol for their obvious debt to Joy Division. With their minor-key melodies, pensive vocals, glacial synths, spiky, trebly guitar parts and plectrum-picked basslines, they present a much darker sound than some of the other bands on the scene. Includes the singles 'Bullets','Munich' and 'Blood'.

Track Listing

1. Lights
2. Munich
3. Blood
4. Fall
5. All Sparks
6. Camera
7. Fingers In The Factories
8. Bullets
9. Someone Says
10. Open Your Arms
11. Distance

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1554 in Music
• Released on: 2005-07-25
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
The debut album from Editors, The Back Room confirms this young Birmingham quartet as torch-bearers for a British rock legacy that harks back, via short sojourns through the back catalogues of The Cure and Echo and the Bunnymen, to Joy Division's peerless Unknown Pleasures.

Combining the self-consciously grand, melodramatic vocals of frontman Tom Smith with swirling, minor-key guitar dynamics and claustrophobic, propulsive percussion, this could just be the British riposte to Interpol's majestic Turn On The Bright Lights. Mostly, this is down to Smith's skill for twinning a superficially catchy chorus with enigmatic, dark sentiments: "People are fragile things, you should know by now/Be careful what you put them though", he warns on the tense "Munich". Perhaps in an understanding that you need more than mystique to power a debut album, however, the rather more mellow "Camera" sees Editors spread their wings a little, inviting cascading synths and the distant trill of sustained, effects-drenched guitar into the desolate rock design. Later albums will hopefully see Editors further build on their coldly ambitious sound, but for now, The Back Room should satisfy those in search of a bit of the dark stuff. --Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

Good first album - Better than most current music
Having heard of editors but not knowing much about them i embarked upon eurockeennes de belfort festival 2007, midday on the second day and on came Editors, the set started well and i was instantly impressed with the quality of the live performances, as the set continued i felt being drawn into their sound and by the end i was impressed enough to order this album as soon as i got home. Also, another thing that impressed me was the fact that the lead singer came into the crowd with the public after their set to watch queens of the stoneage. The album is very good with some instant hooks and some songs that gradually grow on you, the sound is very unique for the time and although i can see similarities to JD i think it is unfair to labour them with the JD tag, the band are so much more than that. Favourite tracks from the album include 'Munich', 'Blood' and 'All Sparks', overall a very good album, if you enjoyed this try 'An End Has A Start' aswell which is also a very good album, here's a band that are bound to be around for a while.

80s slight return
Hats off to Exiled Northerner for nailing the true influences on The Editors: the Chameleons and also the Bunnymen are the real points of reference here in the Editors' debut, rather than Joy Division. Check out the Chameleons "Script of the Bridge" and "What Does Anything Mean Basically?" albums and see what I mean. I don't buy into the Joy Division wanabees-schtick at all: JD had a completely different energy, with a rawness heightened by Martin Hannett's production on both guitar and synths, and the only real similarity I hear with the Editors is a nod to Stephen Morris's idiosyncratic drumming. All good JD songs propelled you forwards as their energy uncoiled - She's Lost Control, Isolation, Novelty, Dead Souls etc. Editors's songs have a curious sense of inertia about them. The lyrics on "The Back Room" are, like on their follow-up, almost comically morose at times and delivered in a moody baritone pitched somewhere between The Divine Comedy and Ian Curtis. But Editors do what they do admirably well, with catchy songs like Munich and Bullets to their credit on the debut, and if you love certain early 80s and largely Northern sounds (the moodier moments of the Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes, Positive Noise, Comsat Angels for example) as much as I do then you will enjoy this album too.

Sick of JD references
I have never felt compelled to write a review before but all the Joy Division / Ian Curtis references are obviously written by people who've never actually listened to JD. Like many muso reviews, once a bandwagon is launched, no matter how untrue, it gets perpetuated.

Right, that's off the chest, now onto reality. Whilst I utterly reject the JD sound-clone proposition, what this album most definitely is is a slice of 80's nostalgia. The correct parallels to be drawn are The Chameleons and Echo & the Bunnymen plus bands I can hear in my head, but can't remember the name of. Influence is no bad thing in my book and I remember those times fondly as one on the Zoo Records/Smiths side of the street rather than at the make-up stall in Afflecks Palace...

As someone else alluded to, if this album were vinyl it would stay permanently on Side 1 on my turntable. I love tracks 1-6 then press repeat, somewhat of a pity but then only the very greatest have 10 stand-outs on them.

One that needs perseverence (Munich the only instant for me and the reason I bought the album) but rewarding overall.