The Horrors: Skying (2LP, with download) [XL]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set comes in a gatefold jacket with a download code for the whole album. Skying went top five in the UK and was album of the month in both Mojo and Q.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Gatefold jacket
• Download card included

About the album

Some bands hire a big-name producer for their third album. The Horrors built a studio in London instead and produced Skying themselves, with Craig Silvey helping on the mix, and the freedom shows. The gothic garage punk of their early days is long gone; in its place is a glowing, widescreen record that sits somewhere between shoegaze, post-punk and full-blown psychedelia. Faris Badwan's voice sinks into the mix like another instrument.

"Changing The Rain" opens with a slow, shimmering groove, "I Can See Through You" is a bright synth-pop rush, and "Endless Blue" turns from a hazy drift into a tidal wave of guitar. "Still Life" is the big one, a patient, soaring anthem that Zane Lowe premiered on BBC Radio 1 as his Hottest Record in the World, and "Moving Further Away" stretches into an eight-minute krautrock trip.

BBC Music's Mike Diver called them national treasures in waiting, and critics heard echoes of Simple Minds and Suede in the synths. A band who made their name in very tight trousers turned out to have a very expansive record in them, which is the trousers' loss.

Also at Kops: more The Horrors on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On XL Recordings (cat# XLLP539), the 2011 album.