The Horrors have proven smarter than we may have thought. Their sophomore album retires the goth hipsterisms, and tackles the sound of 1950s sci-fi instead. With laser beam keyboards and time-warped guitars, Primary Colours channels the darker side of Post Punk and the metronomic pulse of Krautrock to great effect.
Production duties were smartly placed in the hands of Portishead’s Geoff Barrow who gives the album a shoegazing wash that mesmerises and haunts. The Horrors continue to rock out on tracks like ‘New Ice Age’ and ‘I Can’t Control Myself’, but it’s the restrained moments like ‘Scarlet Fields’ and the creepy pulse of ‘Sea Within a Sea’ that prove most compelling.
Primary Colours is a mature and personal record promising a longevity that The Horrors’ debut lacked.
For fans of: The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees and My Bloody Valentine.
4/5 by Ingmar Apinis