Editors – The Weight Of Your Love
Out today: neo-post-punk tyros grow into their widowers' weeds, bag four MOJO stars.
RECORDED IN NASHVILLE with Tom Waits / Kings Of Leon producer Jacquire King, Editors' fourth retains their customary grandeur and gloom, but there's a new immediacy and surety here, Tom Smith maturing into a truly commanding frontman. Cover art depicting a submerged white rose turning inky black chimes with superb songs about consumptive, ailing love. "Collide into me / I could do with a fight", roars Smith on Honesty, capturing the need to lance the boil at any cost. There's a crackling urgency to A Ton Of Love, all Bunnymen-esque baritone and early U2-ish fervour, while the poised, quietly majestic Nothing is the centrepiece that finds Smith buoyed by strings alone. With newcomers Justin Lockey and Elliott Williams ensconced and ably active, Editors have ridden the 2012 departure of guitarist / keyboardist Chris Urbanowicz in some style.