Editors - An End Has A Start

A very quick disclaimer. I know that this album was out last summer, but I only bought it today. All the album reviews I post on Musical Chairs will be albums that I've acquired as opposed to trying to be up-to-date. If I try and be up-to-date it ends up being rather formulaic and boring, which is what this blog should NOT be. Instead, I want to have a sense of spontaneity.

Anyway.

An End Has A Start is the second album by Editors, who hail from Birmingham. I was a fan of their debut album, The Back Room, in 2005 and was very intrigued as to what they would do next. After hearing Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors last year for the first time, I immediately dismissed it. But a quick succession of solid singles has slowly started to turn me around, and now I've finally decided to give it a go.

And it was £6 from HMV (yes, I know, HMV! A nice change from rip-off pricing).

It's a solid follow up, and also a completely gloomy one in its theme of death. The one clear difference on this album in terms of sound is that it sounds far more bigger and grandiose than The Back Room. One is almost tempted to utter the band beginning with U and ending in 2, but it's such an inevitable comparison, I'll save myself. These moments do work very well. Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors has turned from a track I dismissed the first time round into a statement of intent that is one of my favourites

One of the factors contributing to the more expansive sound is a more significant use of piano. It adds a sense of drama and it works for almost every track it's used on, with The Racing Rats and Push Your Head Towards The Air notable favourites. Editors though still can produce songs that are straightforward three and a half minute anthems that you can dance to. An End Has A Start and Bones showcase the sound of this four-piece that fans have known and loved. The trademark, eerie guitar sounds courtesy of Peter Urbanowicz and the fast, up-tempo rhythms are more than evident.

You do wonder though, after listening to the album all the way through whether or not you feel totally satisfied with this sophomore attempt. Even though the length is ideal and the songs are solid, I ask myself whether this is what I wanted from Editors for album two. I still don't really know, even whilst writing this up. What I can say though is that it is a solid album and that the potential is there for them to make even better albums. This is not their masterpiece, just merely a good album.

RATING 7/10

DIGG IT!