Back Room, the (Limited Edition) [digipak] Limited edition

Limited Edition two CD pressing of their critically lauded debut album including a bonus disc featuring six B-sides: 'You Are Fading', 'Crawl Down the Wall', 'Colours', 'Release', 'Let Your Good Heart Lead You Home' and 'Forest Fire' This already classic album confirms this young Birmingham quartet as torch-bearers for a British rock legacy that harks back to the Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen and Joy Division. Combining the self-consciously grand, melodramatic vocals of frontman Tom Smith with swirling, minor-key guitar dynamics and claustrophobic, propulsive percussion, this could just be the British riposte to Interpol's majestic Turn On The Bright Lights. This is due mostly to Smith’s skill at combining a superficially catchy chorus with enigmatic, dark sentiments. Perhaps in an understanding that you need more than mystique to power a debut album, however, the rather mellow 'Camera' sees Editors spread their wings a little, inviting cascading synths and the distant trill of sustained, effects-drenched guitar into the desolate rock design. Kitchenware. 2005.