The Horrors' Primary Colours - Track by Track Guide

The buzz surrounding the return of The Horrors must surely be audible from outer space such is the the ubiquity of it. Already hailed by those who've heard it as an early contender for album of the year, the Southend come Shoreditch five piece have indeed crafted a special and surprisingly brilliant album. Allow Gigwise to guide you through the eye-opening 45 minutes of 'Primary Colours'.

1. Mirror's Image
A woozy and warped intro gives way to a climbing synth line and Faris Badwan's morose vocals. It's a jump in the deep end for old-school Horrors fans and a jolt in the arm for the detractors.

2. Three Decades
Perhaps the most 'Strange House' The Horrors get is on this second track. There are still great swathes of distortion and psychadelia but wild vocals set atop a disco beat make this an accessible album entry point.

3. Who Can Say
Two influences define 'Primary Colours' and 'Who Can Say' is where you begin to hear the My Bloody Valentine/ Jesus and Mary Chain worship begin. A relentless fuzzy chug of a bassline and chiming, hi-hat drums are 'Loveless' all over. The middle eight consists of a spoken word part that gossip mongers will have you believe is about Peaches Geldof.

4. Do You Remember
Faris goes all romantic on us with this tale of love seperated by the sea. "I will cross the ocean, I will be with you soon" he sings like Ian Brown on a diet of Bauhaus and Suicide. Black hearted brilliance.

5. New Ice Age
As camp and dramatic as anything The Horrors have recorded before. Wave upon wave of feedback are pierced by shrieks of, "The agony. Tick, tick, tick dead!" from Badwan alongside the first semblance of an anthemic chorus. Again the band sound magnificent, thanks, in no small part, to their producer Geoff Barrow of Portishead.

6. Scarlet Fields
A beautiful gothic ballad set at a demi pace, disconcertingly lulled between fast and slow. Like much of the album the choruses and hooks are not delivered vocally but by guitar solos and reptition of synth riffs.

7. I Only Think Of You
This might lose a few people. A seven minute drone epic, 'I Only Think Of You, sounds like wading through a swamp. You suspect this made the album as a way of showing off a broad pallette of influences as opposed to improving the record as a whole.

8. I Can't Control Myself
A future single contender? It certainly is one of the poppier moments of 'Primary Colours'. Having said that they'd have to consult Jason Pierce as this is note for note exactly the same as Spiritualized's 'Come Together'.

9. Primary Colours
A pretty and colourful romp equppied with chiming instrumentation and a confident vocal throughout.

10. Sea Within A Sea
A.K.A the free, 8 minute download the band gave away via their website last month. Some critics have dubbed this Neu! Order in a dismissal of The Horrors close relationship with their influences. For three and a half minutes 'Sea Within A Sea' is a krautrock stomp before giving way to intergalactic electronics and waltzing off into the twighlight amidst the pulses and blips.