Video: The Horrors - Who Can Say

The Horrors release second single 'Who Can Say' from new album Primary Colours on May 5th via XL.

We recieved the album t'other day and it's one of the best we've layed ears to so far this year - check back next week for a full review.

Read our verdict on first single 'Sea Within A Sea' from last month.



Proof not to judge a book by it's angsty, dodgy goth cover?

Cheers to Big Stereo for the video tip.

New In: The Horrors - Sea Within A Sea

Today marks the release of The Horrors new single 'Sea Within A Sea' on their official site.

A definite attempt to explore new sounds following the goth dirge of their 2007 debut album Strange House, Sea Within A Sea takes in many shoegaze and post-punk influences.

Produced last summer by Geoff Barrow (Portishead), the song (below) is a refreshing change of tactic; singer Faris Badwin has lost the angry young man and embraced reverb fuelled vocals, while his band sound more comfortable in experimental mode - the second half of the song shows them taking an almost ambient direction.



After the bands aggro-fuelled breakthrough at the end of 2006 (there were strong rumours that their label Loog 'purchased' the bands NME cover in August of the same year), the Horrors divided opinion among the indie-rock masses. Were they the perfect antidote to tedious electro or just bad goths?

When we interviewed the band for Artrocker magazine around their NME shows in 2007, they kept us waiting for an hour while they slept off hangovers and didn't look enamoured to be on board the rock'n'roll ship. Since then they've left Loog (who took on the more commercially marketable Courteeners) and signed with the excellent XL, and sound all the better for it.

Second album Primary Colours is released on 4th May, for live dates check their MySpace page.

Welcome back: Jack Penate, The Maccabees

Continuing on yesterdays returning Doves, we’ve been intrigued by new material from Jack Penate and The Maccabees.

Both rode with much hype in 2007 armed with debut albums and significant press buzz. Penate in particular found it hard to live up to the brightness of his early singles across a full album, while the Maccabees looked tired and uninspired when we caught them live in Manchester last April.

Penate’s ‘Tonight’s Today’ is a surprising defection to preppy drum beats, loose vocals and sun kissed, reverb heavy guitars – a million miles away from the overstated indie styling of his debut. It would be quite easy to dismiss this as jumping on a TV On The Radio/insert new Brooklyn band name *here* bandwagon, but maybe Penate will turn into the true pop star he was being trumpeted as two years ago.

Tonight’s Today is released on 30 March through XL. Expect a new album from Mr Penate dropping in time for summer festivals.

The Maccabees current free download ‘No Kind Words’ is a propulsive, dramatic track which finds them edging towards an Interpol vibe they waxed lyrical about during early interviews. The video below features that bloke who’s on the telly quite a lot these days (Matt Horne), and the band are on tour from next week. They've just announced that new album Wall Of Arms will be released on 4th May through Fiction.