Missing the hook

(Morning Star, Sunday 24 June 2007)

ALBUM: Editors - An End Has A Start
(Sony)

YOU have to hand it to Editors. Bringing elegiac guitar anthems to the masses straight outta Birmingham garnered them both critical and commercial success which would lead to any more mainstream band - ie Keane - facing accusations of selling out.

But Tom Smith's Midlands miserabilists wore their Echo-style coats and lyrics with all the aplomb of Interpol and the success of their debut album assures them a good hearing for this sophomore effort.

It's a shame, then, that they've made a change in direction. Not from the gloom - it's still front and centre, on the title track here especially.

No, the change of direction has been away from listenable pop music, leaving behind the anthems and the soaring sweep of breakout hit Munich.

From single Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors to When Anger Shows, there's not a hook on the whole record to make radio play a cert.

The guitar work by pixie-cute Chris Urbanowicz has remained passable, but the mourning tone of Smith's vocal makes for depressing listening from start to finish. By the time you get to album closer Well Worn Hand, you'll be glad the start has an end.