Editors - In This Light and On This Evening

Rating

: * * * *

Verdict

:

No longer wearing Joy Division uniforms

It's out with the steely guitars, and in with the searing synthesisers for British post-punk revivalists the Editors. But one thing remains on their third album: the dark, yet uplifting, mood they manage to conjure up with their incessant talk of death and the deliciously dour instrumentation.

The opening title track smoulders into existence, with a synth-soaked sizzle and leader Tom Smith sounding like Andrew Eldritch of goth band Sisters of Mercy, before it explodes in a mangled burst of distortion. But the album kicks in properly with pounding first single

Papillon

, one of the heaviest and most propulsive synth-driven songs to come out in years (video below) - and the closest they come to previous anthems like

Munich

and

Bones

.

Elsewhere

Bricks And Mortar's

wending keyboard-line is an unashamed nod to Trans-Europe Express and it soon whips up into a dancefloor pulse; and the industrial folk of

Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool

is the most twisted Editors' song yet.

It's dark indeed, at times oppressive, and they sound more 80s industrial than 80s post-punk. But there are sweeter synth-pop moments too, on

You Don't Know Love

, and there's something romantic about grand songs like

The Big Exit

and the beautifully brittle serenade of

The Boxer.

While they haven't lost that biting, almost caustic, Editors sound, they are happy in their own skins, doing something different, and indulging their inspirations without sounding derivative.

Scott Kara