Editors' The Back Room is 10

Editors' 2005 début album The Back Room was huge for me. There are so many great, truly 5-star songs on this album. It's 10 years old today and it's a great time to reflect back, listen to the tunes, and bask in their glory.

This album features great driving beats, catchy guitar riffs and solid bass lines, with singer Tom Smith's deep vocals that were often compared to Joy Division's Ian Curtis and Interpol's Paul Banks. Comparisons aside, Editors introduced us to their ability to write and perform great songs.

"Lights"

"Munich"

"Blood"

"All Sparks"

"Fingers In The Factories"

Pic from Amazon.

Editors new video for Formaldehyde

Editors new album The Weight Of Your Love is out now. I posted the tune "A Ton of Love" back in May and now they have a cool video for the song "Formaldehyde".

And Rolling Stone has a sparse and emotive solo acoustic version of "Honesty".

Five-by-Five: 2005 was a very good year

2005 stands out as an amazing year in music for me. I discovered some amazing bands and some of my favourite bands put out their strongest albums in 2005. Here's part one of a two-part Five-by-Five post on amazing tunes from 2005.

"Helicopter" from Bloc Party's incredible début Silent Alarm. One of the most frantically amazing albums from front to back.

"An Honest Mistake" from The Bravery's eponymous 80s tribute

"7/4 Shoreline" from Broken Social Scene's amazing self-titled album

"Munich" from Editors unparalleled The Back Room

"Broken Ship" from Immaculate Machine's Ones and Zeros

New song by Editors

I really, really like, maybe even love, the first two albums - 2005's The Back Room and 2007's An End Has A Start - by Birmingham alternative band Editors. Their change in emphasis from guitars to synths for 2009's In This Light And On This Evening left me cold.

Their just-released song "A Ton of Love" from their forthcoming album The Weight of Your Love is what I'd term a return to form. There are guitars back in the mix and the impassioned, energetic, anthemic song writing and production are back.

Give it a listen.

The new album's due out July 1. No word on whether the North American release will follow on July 2.

And just cuz, here are some great tunes from Editors albums past.

"Lights",

"Munich", and

"Blood" from The Back Room, and

"Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors",

"An End Has A Start",

"The Racing Rats", and

"Escape the Nest" from An End Has A Start.

Hard-Fi are back with Killer Sounds

Hard-Fi were one of the British bands that hit me really hard, in a good way, in around 2005. Along with Bloc Party, Maxïmo Park, Editors, The Bravery, and Kaiser Chiefs, among others I'm probably forgetting. They have a new album coming out on August 22. It's called Killer Sounds and they have the second video out.

I featured the first tune, "Good For Nothing", a while back. The second single, "Fire In The House", doesn't have the so much of the pronounced guitars of their previous albums, but it does have a strong chorus, a groovy bass line, and some nice and soulful backup vocals.



They also have another full song and samples of the rest on their audio player. Check it out. Sounds like the band is evolving and I like what they're coming up with.

Hard-Fi - Killer Sounds Sampler by Hard Fi

Editors New Release, In This Light And On This Evening, On Its Way

Ever since I heard "Munich" from the 2005 release The Back Room, I've been hooked on Editors. It's solid British rock with a dark edge. Tom Smith's deep voice and delivery inevitably lead to initial comparisons to Joy Division, but once you get to deeper listening, Editors' individuality emerges. Their second album, An End Has A Start, was released in 2007. This album upped their game considerably, with singles like "Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors", "An End Has A Start" and "The Racing Rats".

Originally I had heard that the new album, In This Light And On This Evening, was to be released on September 21. Amazon UK has the release date posted at October 12. I think this latter date is more likely to be correct since the Editors home page has a countdown to some 56 days from the time of this writing. With several concerts to attend and new releases I'm looking forward to, it looks like October will be a busy musical month.

A while back, Chromewaves posted that “Editors’ Tom Smith keeps up the sci-fi soundtrack talking points in discussing their new record". Based on this and some other articles I've seen around the web, I think we're in for a very different sounding album from Editors. Somehow, I'm still confident it will be great.

European tour dates have been announced. Looks like we'll be waiting for winter, or I'd guess more likely spring before we see Editors touring North America. That actually gives plenty of time to become intimate with the album and ready for the concert experience.

Editors, or their record company, don't want me to embed videos, so here are links to "Munich" and "Blood" from The Back Room plus "Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors", "An End Has A Start" and "The Racing Rats" from An End Has A Start. Or you can go straight to their video page and watch even more!

Photo from www.editorsus.com