Perfectly minimalistic and incredibly complex
by Eden van der Moere
September and October were some very fruitful months for my music collection. Almost every week, a new album that I had been waiting for was released, such as Ryan Adams’ 1989, CHVRCHES’ Every Open Eye and Lana Del Rey’s Honeymoon.
But this album, is an album that I have been looking forward to the most. Editors is a band that I have listened to for the biggest part of my life, a band that I always shared with my Dad. We both love Editors, ever since it started with The Back Room and An End Has A Start, singing along to the lyrics of “Munich” and “The Racing Rats”. Con-certs and festivals followed, with my family and me crammed in a tiny car to go see the band perform, or waiting on a festival field for Tom Smith and his consorts to climb the stage.
After releasing four – very different – albums, Editors once more released an album that is something complete-ly else. The first two records, both The Back Room and An End Has A Start are guitar records, inspired by Joy Divi-sion and Echo & The Bunnymen. The synth-driven and dark In This Light And On This Evening, Editors’ third record, surprised both friend and foe, whereas their fourth LP, The Weight Of Your Love brought the band back to the roots of their first two albums, with a more rock-inspired sound. One could argue that Editors went back to their third album with IN DREAM, because of the more electronic sound of the re-cord. However, IN DREAM is as much In This Light as it is not.
Dramatic and grotesque, but at the same time very intimate and min-imalistic: IN DREAM is a work full of opposites. Even within songs, there is juxtaposition. In “Salvation”, graceful violin strings stand in sharp contrast with minimalistic beats, poetic vocals and hard, violent and intensely dark choruses. The contrast within the song is deliciously complex and a real treat to listen to. IN DREAM is also an album for firsts, because it features the first duet ever featured on an Editors album. “The Law” is an experimental composition, with hollow, almost hypnotizing synths and an intense and intimate conversation between Tom Smith’s dark whispers and Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell’s angelic choruses.
My personal favorite of the album is the opening track, “No Harm”. Perfectly minimalistic and yet incredibly complex, the song has an incredible build-up. Starting with bare synths, followed by dark and echoing vocals by Tom Smith, a heart-breaking falsetto chorus, the song slowly grows into an electronic symphony, guided by haunting vocals, deep synths and a secretive guitar.
On the one hand, I love IN DREAM, but on the other hand, when I think of their early work, the work I fell in love with almost ten years ago, I passionately miss that work. For me, the essence of Editors was their darkness, their chilling lyrics, deep vocals and elegant, yet incinerating guitar sounds and when listening to IN DREAM, that specific essence is as good as gone. In-stead, that essence is found in deep and dark synths, graceful strings, more up-beat rhythms and a new vocal range for frontman Tom Smith.
IN DREAM is still a dark album, not made to storm the charts or become stadium anthems, but much more complex and experimental. A logical answer to In This Light and an interest-ing step in Editor’s musical direction. Almost shockingly different from all its predecessors, Editors delivered an album that may not be loved by all fans, but definitely loved by some. Including me.
Eden van der Moere is a Literature and Theatre & Media Studies major from Goes, The Netherlands.
