Kicking like a sleep twitch

It may be unrealistic to expect the Editors ever to break out of their late '70s / early '80s retro mold. But that hasn't stopped them from trying something completely different with their latest album, In This Light and on This Evening. Delving deep into the more sinister side of urban life in London, the four-piece band has ditched the big-guitar sound that initially pitted them against the likes of Franz Ferdinand and The Arctic Monkeys, and adopted a more synth-heavy approach reminiscent of Depeche Mode and Gary Numan's Tubeway Army.

New fans will probably be oblivious to the group's change in sound. But for those who have been around a while, there's no escaping the Echo and The Bunnymen, REM, Radiohead and Chameleons reference points. Speaking from his home in Birmingham, England, Ed Lay, the band's drummer, accepts this but is keen to add, "We're not focusing on any particular time plan. We just want to write interesting music, which hopefully our fans will like."  

Like his heroes, frontman Tom Smith doesn't sing about normal, everyday concerns like how to pay the next gas bill; instead, he focuses on death and insecurity. Every time he boards a plane, he believes it will be his last. Smith says of the new disc, "The songs are about my thoughts and worries, but it doesn't mean I have to live by that code."  

Indeed, he doesn't, as most of the Editors' angst appears to be about as authentic as Joy Division's oven gloves. That said, their talent firmly lies in the melodrama and intensity of their songs, such as "Papillion," the new album's apocalyptic nightmare opener inspired by the 1973 film of the same name.

"Darling, just don't put down your guns yet / If there really was a God here / He'd have raised a hand by now," Smith sings in his distinctive, Ian Curtis-low baritone before abruptly spouting, "It kicks like a sleep twitch!"   

But what does it all mean?  

"It's that kind of thing when you're sitting on the sofa watching telly," Lay explains. "You kind of fall asleep, and you just sort of react to it. Your arms and legs flail about. It's your body doing something that's completely uncontrollable."

Lay admits a change of direction was needed to ensure that the band didn't become formulaic. "There's some very cold and stark moments," he says of the new disc. "With the vision we had in our heads, we wanted it to sound quite mechanical, but also controlled by us in a very human way." Shades of Kraftwerk!

"If we had approached this record writing in a more traditional way with instruments we'd been getting used to, I think we would have been disappointed with what we came up with," Lay says. "I think we would have ripped ourselves off and repeated ourselves too much, boring us and boring the listener. What we decided to do was play with new equipment and new sounds, and create individual, very interesting music. Hopefully, we've done that and our fans will stay with us and embrace the new sound. I'm sure there will be some new people interested in our music as well."

With In This Light having gone straight to No. 1 on the UK album charts, the gamble obviously paid off. The Editors' forthcoming gig at Roxy will be their first in Prague, although they were in town a few years ago to shoot the video for their first major hit, "Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors." Filmed along the river near Výtoň and at the main train station, it made the city look pathetically bleak and miserable, like showing the beauty of Prague through one of the city's herna bars.

But no hard feelings. "We're delighted to be coming back to Prague," Lay chirps. "We stayed there for two nights to shoot the video, but drank a bit too much."   

Like everyone else who comes to Prague. This time, we'll see if they can drink and play.

James Scanlon can be reached at
features@praguepost.com