Released 11th July 2011 on XL

Chart Performance: Skying charted on both sides of the Atlantic peaking at a very impressive no.5 in the UK.

What The Critics Said: “Gone is the ‘Primary Colours’ influences of Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, or the punchy impatience of ‘Strange House’, and in that place stands an intellectually collective five-piece, fully immersed in the confidence of their own astonishing abilities.” Clash

If you asked anyone three years ago about the possibility of The Horrors making it onto Radio One’s A playlist and garnering phenomenal album reviews, and they most likely would have laughed back in your face. Four years have passed since The Horrors first busted onto the music scene, South End people were never supposed to look this scary and play such loud shouty music.

Shouty 60′s garage rock Strange House gave way to the well received gloomy psychedelic Primary Colours, an album which landed a Mercury Awards nomination, and now they’re onto the this year’s anthemic guitar-powered Skying. Each Horrors record has become more experimental; Skying set the bar rolling towards bigger and better things, and was compared to early 90′s/ late 80′s Bowie/ Suede commercial music. They also went deeper into ‘Sea Within A Sea’ territory than anyone could have imagined.

Skying is blessed with melancholic mood, surprisingly drowning in shoegaze, up-tempo drums, and ready steady vocals: float away Tom’s synths, the sexual bass lines and finally the monstrous bullet beefy guitar riffs. The songs may sound different to the ones they aresandwiched in between, but somehow The Horrors have managed to create this space-flow, which gets carries across the entire album, making it more than easy on the ear.

Songs like ‘Moving Further Away’ and ’Endless Blue’ start with beauty and end in beauty. They Erupt with carefree trumpet synths only to be traumatised mid way by Joshua’s heavy dramatic riffs, how very nice to have fallen into a light trance only to be roared awake by guitars. ‘Wide eyed’ is the attention seeker that comes out of nowhere to capture your attention, defiantly the dark horse of the album. You always forget how amazing Faris atmospheric vocals as they dreamy float into Tom’s synths. The big brand infectious lead single ‘Still Life’ is ridiculous delicious with lyrics like ‘the moment that you want is coming if you give it time‘ how is it not possible to be memorised by such a line? The same can be said of ‘I Can See Through You’. The Horrors welcomed back the old times Horrors on ‘Monica Gems’ sounding like husky rusted scratching. Only this time, we the listeners are able to follow and sing back the lyrics.

Psychedelic ballad ‘Ocean Burning’ ends Skying with a daunting backdrop filled with so many ideas, it is possible to sit there and watch your head go crazy in experimental awe. Skying needs to be heard from the start, right through to the very last track, no skipping, no shuffling. This is not a singles album, like most music out there, Skying is a masterpiece within its gazing self, sit back and become involved in this spiral of five minute plus song art-rock slurs. Simone F