The Horrors - V

The Guardian 80

(Wolf Tone/Caroline International)

After 2014’s slightly aimless Luminous, the Horrors’ fifth album finds them recapturing the focus of their earlier triumphs. The expansive melange of psychedelia and krautrock, embellished with synths and electronic flourishes, which they established on Primary Colours, is still the lingua franca, but there’s a greater consistency to the songwriting this time around. Indeed, from an icily detached Faris Badwan channelling his inner Gary Numan on slowly grinding opener Hologram through to the euphoric Moroder-influenced disco wig-out Something to Remember Me By that closes proceedings 54 minutes later, there isn’t a weak link. It makes for their most cohesive album yet.

Pitchfork 71

On their fifth album, the Horrors retool their formula for retro-leaning, riff-laden arena rock in an attempt to reconnect with the “unsettling” spirit of their garage-rock roots.