It’s official: post-punk and synthesizers are in, in, in. Never mind Paste decrying Tonight: Franz Ferdinand as a “pitiful decline of a once-great band”, legions of Yeah Yeah Yeahs fans truly puzzled by the band’s new, electronic sound on It’s Blitz, and quite a varied reaction to post-punk revivalists White Lies’ To Lose My Life. The Horrors are perhaps the last group anyone would expect to ride the trend…or take it to a higher plane altogether.

Their 2007 release Strange House proved fun, punky, and a little spooky. Most noticeable, listening to the album in retrospect, is the potential that is heard- the arty edginess in their musicianship, the untapped melodiousness in Faris “Rotter” Badwan’s voice. Still, this new-found sound on Primary Colours (Badwan’s not growling this time around!) has been viewed as largely unprecedented…except to anyone who heard the Horrors’ cover of the Suicide song “Shadazz” last autumn, part of the Blast First Petite series of tribute EPs to legendary electro-punk duo Suicide, which foreshadows the new direction they were going to take with their follow-up LP, keyboard effects, cool swagger, and all.

Last month, I heard about the Horrors’ offer of a free mp3 of “Sea Within a Sea” from thisisoffset: 7 minutes, 58 seconds long, this is no lightweight track, bass plodding along darkly at the beginning and Faris Badwan’s voice coming as a pleasant shock, articulate, subtly packed with emotion and strange charm. Approaching 3:00, the song takes a roller-coaster spin through drums, guitar, and clattering from all around, with 4:00 “until the end…” becoming unexpectedly positive. Based on the brilliance of the single, Primary Colours was immediately on my wish-list for 2009.

“Mirror’s Image” opens the album with near-ambient touches, progressing along to a blend of shoegaze-reminiscent fuzz and electronic loops, a feature to appear in varying forms throughout the album. “Three Decades” and “Scarlet Fields” are surrounded with noise, sounds evoking the echoes of basements, cathedrals, and (possibly haunted) subway stations. “Who Can Say” crashes in like a gothic M83, bittersweet with Badwan’s laments. A dash of psychedelia is added for good measure in “Do You Remember”, complete with vocal backmasking, and “I Can’t Control Myself”, a tune that would find itself at home on a compilation like Children of Nuggets or as a lost Love and Rockets b-side.

“New Ice Age” bridges the gap between Strange House and Primary Colours- gritty, but with fresh ingredients and purpose. “I Only Think of You” is the most ballad-esque of the Horrors’ catalog yet, another long one (7:06), and a bit more meandering than the other material found here. Title track “Primary Colours” would be an excellent pick for a single, the feel of the album crystallized in one track, with nods to their influences felt, yet without sounding outdated. The album closes with the powerful “Sea Within a Sea”, what many bands might have chosen as an opening track, concluding Primary Colours as epic and fully-realized as hearing this same single alone promised.

Pre-Order The Horrors - Primary Colours (released: 5/5/2009)

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