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Made in Shoreditch

I also contribute a weekly column to Made in Shoreditch magazine called 'Old East End/New East End', where I look at the relationship between the East End of old and new, looking at the changes and the stalwarts in landscape, residents and culture, focussing on one street or district each week. You can find it here.

Songs of the Year: The Horrors - Still Life

Wednesday 4 January 2012

Gone are the days when The Horrors were just another annoying five minute flash-in-the-pan skinny band doing the rounds in Dalston or Camden. With their last two albums the band have hit their stride impeccably and have extended their musical boundaries to incorporate more than just two-and-a-half-minute post punk backward glancing.

This then, the biggest single to emerge from Skying, probably their best effort to date, sees the band going for it big. It has a large, all-encompassing, almost balladeer feel which treads the line between Joy Division and Simple Minds perfectly (namely, it leans towards the Joy Division side of it, only sometimes slipping into Simple Minds territory, which is good as Simple Minds are a grotesque outfit).


The Horrors

Farris Badwan's voice sound hoarse at points, in a good way, and his deep, searching baritone hits the spot perfectly on the anthemic "When you wake up, you will find me" parts.

Musically it's an array of string-like synths and well-worked harmonies which, although they at first seem large, are subtle. Subtly subtle then, if that makes sense.

In short this is an easy pick as one of 2011's best songs.

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