Editors
[#] In This Light and On This Evening (2009)
London deserves a little better, no?
Reviewed September 7, 2026
Talk about disappointing! I consider The Back Room to be my finest $1 used CD purchase—In This Light and On This Evening may be my most unfortunate £1 used CD purchase. Given that my girlfriend's family enjoyed the former as much as I did, I was really hoping to find another cache of darkly smouldering gems for their car playlist and only came away with this gloopy Eurythmics-go-goff pablum instead. Editors trade their guitars for 80s keyboards here, but they also seem to trade any of the optimism and catchiness that offset The Back Room's inner demons for a gloomy self-seriousness that borders on parody.
I want you to imagine a genuinely strong, booming British singing voice insisting to you that "it kicks like a sleep twitch" is a lyric good enough to be repeated eight times. I know rock is immature at the best of times, but I simply cannot take DeviantART poetry like "You ran with the dead today/With the moles from the C.I.A." and "Damn the summer flowers/They took what once was ours" over dark neon synth lines with a straight face. It's not particularly haunting, nor that catchy, save for sole properly good ballad "The Big Exit" and the awfully-named single "Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool", where the danger and romance Tom Smith and company reach for all record finally lie in their black fingernail grasp.
| Essential: | "The Big Exit", "Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool" |
|---|---|
| Quintessential: | "You Don't Know Love" |
| Non-Essential: | "Like Treasure" |
| Rating: |  |
[#] The Back Room (2005)
Finding a way out of the shadows.
Reviewed June 2, 2025
It's not about what you do, it's how you do it. Editors come barreling out of the gate with this pounding, completely confident, consistently catchy batch of dark indie rock tunes nestled lyrically at the cross-section of human nature ("Munich"), futility ("All Sparks"), working class life ("Fingers in the Factories"), and neurosis ("Bullets"), and the focus is instead on all those 80s bands that they sound a bit like. Is it kinda Depeche Mode-y, a bit Joy Division-y? Sure, whatever. None of that matters. This is a huge record, and these eleven tunes make a wrecking ball impression where you find new crannies to get lost in each play.
"People are fragile things/You should know by now/Be careful what you put them through," goes "Munich". Tom Smith's booming baritone has this way of delivering what could easily turn into gooey melodrama with stark conviction, and you believe him too. Probably helps that, despite the sober lyricism, he's actually rather on the optimistic side. See how penultimate ballad "Open Your Arms" builds from monochrome toms and cold, buzzing guitars to crashing, colorful fireworks in its six minutes. "This lot have messed you around," there's no denying that, but stay open and let people get close to you, because it's a long way down with your head down.
| Essential: | "Blood", "All Sparks", "Open Your Arms" |
|---|---|
| Quintessential: | "Munich" |
| Non-Essential: | "Fingers in the Factories" |
| Rating: |  |