The Horrors

A A A Comments By Doug Wallen Wednesday, Sep 23 2009

Meet Ian Curtis lovers the Horrors, the Hives' evil doppelgangers.

Details

With Crocodiles, 8 p.m. Thursday, September 24, at Walter's on Washington, 4215 Washington, 713-862-2513 or www.pegstar.net.

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Whereas 2007's Strange House found the Horrors meeting the Cramps and the Ramones halfway while singing about Jack the Ripper, follow-up Primary Colours finds the English youngsters trading in their scrappy verve for atmospheric brooding. Here the Horrors look for inspiration from Suicide, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and My Bloody Valentine — making every track sound familiar, while Faris Badwan's vocals are routinely informed by Ian Curtis. So does all this make the Horrors a pack of bratty pretenders, or simply put them next in line after Interpol to carry on Joy Division's legacy? It's hard to tell, because as unoriginal as this record gets, its mood swings are awfully catchy. The group enlisted production help from Portishead's Geoff Barrow, among others, and several songs include mind-bending fits of vintage synths and guitar effects. Amid so much moping, "Scarlet Fields" and "I Can't Control Myself" sound rubbery and alive. In contrast, the eight-minute exploration "Sea Within a Sea" has an ear-tickling procession of synth melodies; it's the most ambient, unrushed single from a British band since Radiohead's "Pyramid Song."