Moving from the Cramps and The Ramones to The Cure and Echo and The Bunnymen, from rock-a-billy and punk to post-punk, isn’t that great a leap. It’s a move many of us thirty-somethings made in our own listening habits years ago. Still, when the Horror’s released “Sea Within a Sea,” the first single from their sophomore album, Primary Colours, the shift from two-minute shock rock to eight-minute post-punk and krautrock seemed quite drastic. Hell, if the reports of The Horror’s early gigs are to be believed, those shows barely lasted as long as “Sea Within a Sea.”
Ultimately, if The Horrors’ second album switcheroo succeeds, some of the credit will have to go to the veterans who have helped oversee their transformation. Like, “Sea Within a Sea,” the video for “Who Can Say,” was directed by Douglas Hart, a founding member of The Jesus and Mary Chain, a band who underwent a similar change between albums one and two. Also, not to be overlooked, is the recording work of Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, a man who knows how to do spookiness in more subtle, calculated ways. Are we witnessing the next step in a long, successful career, or the death knell for a one-time buzz band? Who can say?
YOUTUBE: The Horrors – Who Can Say
