THE HORRORS
"The Horror's fifth album is their best yet, with Faris Badwan’s commanding, world-weary vocals adding to the synthesised thrills and sparkling guitar-pop" - THE GUARDIAN
“It is a risk”, says Faris Badwan, singer with The Horrors, whose fifth album V, released on September 22nd via Paul Epworth's Wolf Tone label/Caroline International, is further proof of his band's bold refusal to stand still. “But life isn't much fun without risk. It's the antithesis of being creative, if you know what you're going to be doing every time.”
Most bands spend their early years desperately fighting to build a following who love them for doing one particular thing. Having finally achieved that, very few bands are willing to risk alienating that following by ditching that thing, and switching to a completely different path. But there are very few bands like The Horrors.
“We've always been conscious of bands who do stay in one place for years and years,” explains keyboardist Tom Furse, “and that's not very interesting. I like to be surprised. And it's also natural, if you do view yourself as an artist, to progress and not play it safe. Bowie pre-empted the modern condition of not being able to stay in one place for very long, and I get frustrated with bands who stay still. Because then it does become a career. And it literally is 'status quo', in both senses.”
Artistically, this policy may make sense. Commercially, it's a daring, even self-sabotaging strategy, as guitarist Joshua Third admits. “I remember James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem saying 'If you want to be big in America, do a thing and just keep doing it.' And the shows will get bigger and you'll be successful, as if by magic. But we've just never been career-minded, which is weird as we've been doing it for so long. It's a cruel joke, maybe...”