The Horrors - 'Strange House' (Loog) Released 05/03/07

Right, we're going to have to be careful here. The last time Gigwise gave a negative review to Southend's finest goth clothes-horses The Horrors (" Over indulgent fashionably out of tune music… pretentious ****ing haircuts and a musically elitist aesthetic") they threatened to scalp – or at least furiously backcomb – one of our journalists. Suffice to say, reaction to the band so far has been mixed, from glorious hyperbole-infused reviews from the NME of their early live shows to, well, numerous reviews following the same pattern of Gigwise's aforementioned piece.
 
The main criticism so far has been that the ridiculously young five-piece are all style and no substance – magnificently coffered haircuts, androgynous eyeliner, stage names like Joshua Von Grimm and… not much else. Now, with 'Strange House', The Horrors have an ideal opportunity to prove their detractors wrong. And the results are disappointing.
 
Not so ludicrously dreadful that you'd actively seek the album out to experience the appalling sound of a gratuitously hyped band falling apart at the seams, nor so surprisingly well written that the whole nature of The Horrors phenomenon should be reassessed, 'Strange House' is simply a mediocre record that will be forgotten by the time the next well-dressed band hare onto the scene. It's difficult to see what The Horrors are trying to achieve here – shock tactics possibly? Apart from convincing visceral director Chris Cunningham to make the video for debut single 'Sheena Is A Parasite', there is little in The Horror's repertoire that raises a shudder, despite their best efforts with moans and groans lifted from Hammer horror films.